Run & Hide
by SoulVenture91
Summary: When Kanan Jarrus finally stops running, it always seems that the past comes out of hiding. A new recruit to the rebellion may remind him of more than he wants to admit.
1. Arc 1: Prologue-Part 1

_A dark place, a city, a temple. Rattling thunder, power crackling up above. Ahead, horned, evil, yellow eyes flaring with malice. Red lightsaber. Sith._

"C-Caleb?"

 _Same brown hair, tied the same way, blue blade trying to come up. Apprentice. Sith wants to take his apprentice. Have to stop him, have to –_

"Caleb!"

 _Sith leaps, one of those red blades passing his guard, too close, searing white pain, he can't – can't –_

"Caleb, no!"

She jolted, hands gripping the cold durasteel floor as her pulse began to slow. Another vision – and this time not even a hopeful near-dream. Her own eyes closed as the afterimage of the searing white-hot light flared against her eyelids. Something was wrong, far away, and her only childhood friend was at the center of it. She pushed herself up from the floor slowly, rubbing the bridge of her nose with a grumbling sigh. It had been fifteen years and extra since she'd last seen him; she didn't know for certain he was still alive.

She would have gotten some water to slap over her face if the appropriated Imperial comlink next to her pallet didn't start going off. So much for getting a break to go salvaging. She picked up the comlink before sitting down on the thin padding over a metal frame.

"I'm here, what's up?"

 _"Timetable's moved up, that convoy's heading out with doubled escort in two hours, not six,"_ a gruff male voice warned her over the channel. _"You didn't leave any leads for them to wonder, did you?"_

"It's not any fun if I can't make them nervous," she argued. "Not to mention you know it leaves those bucketheads scratching their actual heads."

 _"Yeah, and then when I don't do the same it makes them suspicious. Raen, you're going to get noticed soon. If not the Empire, by someone who'll figure you out."_

"So that leaves, what, Black Sun? Some other cartel in Coruscant's underworld?"

 _"You know what I mean. If that happens I can't drag you out of trouble."_

"Well," Raen noted casually before reaching under the pallet for a metal cylinder that she clipped to her belt, "I can probably bluff my way out. Like I did before you came along."

 _"And look how well that's worked out. Just…be careful. I'll find you in the morning."_

Raen clicked the comlink twice before closing the channel, shaking her head. Her contact was a good man and risking everything to help her, but his old soldier's instinct was going to get them both into trouble sooner than her flash-and-dance techniques. If she'd finished her training, maybe she'd be more cautious, more careful.

"Careful is what a Jedi does best," she muttered before collecting jacket, blaster, and headscarf. "But there's no Jedi anymore."

Raen secured her blaster and shrugged on her jacket before wrapping the scarf about her silver-brown hair. As she made sure the scarf hid her face, Raen rushed out into the shafts that provided the warren of security around her hideout, and a brilliant shaft of yellow light led her way.

–

 _"An ongoing investigation into today's sudden terrorist attack on an Imperial military convoy raises questions as to how such violent acts can reach Imperial Center. Earlier today, insurgents struck the convoy – loaded with newly-trained troops and supplies bound to the Outer Rim – and not only destroyed at least three troop transports, but stole the vast majority of the supplies as well. Eyewitnesses claim anywhere from twenty to a lone vigilante pressed the attack, but Imperial Security spokespeople have informed HNN that the attack was likely carried out by at least six individuals –"_

"Or," Bail Organa, representative of Alderaan in the Imperial Senate, noted over the HoloNet playback, "it may be only one. One very, very well-prepared individual."

Organa scanned the footage released to the network – most of it doctored to carry over the numbers the ISB were insisting – but managed to see what he needed to. Nearly-unnatural reflexes and agility, a preternatural instinct, and a golden lightsaber. All indicators of what he could never have expected but was apparent to anyone who looked closely enough. Organa reached over to signal an aide from his desk, someone trustworthy and could keep his mouth shut against Imperial spy equipment littering his office. Organa made sure to write up the message he needed delivered and handed it off to the aide once he had entered.

"Please transmit this information as quickly as you can," he ordered, brisk but not stern. "Some…disturbing reports need to reach some specific individuals who may be interested in events here in the capital."

"Straightaway, senator," the aide agreed, glancing briefly at the address for the recipient. "…ah. Yes, of course, I understand, sir."

"Very good; off you go," Organa noted, and sighed once the aide had scurried out. "We will need as many good people as we can get. And soon."

* * *

 ** _Chopper Base, Atollon_**

Three months. Three months in the dark. Kanan Jarrus sighed, trying to focus, to cut through the darkness. Ever since Maul had blinded him and his eyes had been healed as best as the rebel medics could do, he'd been trying to…do something. _Anything_. Zeb had led him out to the Lasat's private overlook outside of Chopper Base that morning; now the sun was starting to set, and Kanan was still out there.

Kanan remembered roughly how he had thrown Maul from the Sith temple on Malachor; it was recreating that sensation that was hard. It had been like sensing in the normal use, but the Force hadn't just come to his mind. It had enhanced…everything. He had heard Maul's footfall, softer than the crackling lightning from the temple summit; tasted the smoke from the dead Inquisitor Maul had left behind along with the dust in the Jedi guard helmet Kanan had put on to try and seal off his injury. And…he _had_ seen Maul's lightsaber, or…some kind of echo of it. But trying to remember brought back the memory of the pain. Maul's spiteful snarl after crowing viciously about making Ezra his apprentice –

Suddenly Maul was there, laughing again, teeth bared. Kanan jumped to his feet, on reflex putting the hilt and emitter of his lightsaber together and just ignited the blade into a high guard –

"Kanan! _KANAN!"_

Hera's voice shattered the vision, dragging Kanan back into the dark. He shook, staring into the blank nothingness that comprised his universe, before clearly sensing Hera's worry and anxiety, edging closer. Her hands would be outstretched, to take his shoulders. She'd been doing that a lot more lately. It took a few more beats before Kanan heard the soft thrumming of his active lightsaber. Oh.

"Take it easy there; just me," Hera said once he'd thumbed the activation stud and dissembled his lightsaber again. "Still trying to see through the Force?"

"I don't know how it's supposed to happen," Kanan grumbled, turning towards where he could hear her. At least he could still remember how she looked: green skin and _lekku_ loose down her back, the circular patterns tracing down to the tips; her smile, her eyes, everything. "Nothing I ever read about blind Jedi said how they did it."

"Well, either way, we do still need you," Hera insisted. Kanan sensed her coming closer and automatically leaned his cheek into her hand when he felt her fingers softly reaching for him. "I still need you."

"I need you, too," he admitted in a murmur, only fumbling a little as he stowed the lightsaber parts on his belt before holding Hera loosely around her waist. "All of you. I'm not going to be of much use for awhile. Not even to Ezra."

"Yes, you are," Hera insisted. "Come on, have something to eat, then we've got a late night mission brief with Commander Sato."

"Great. Another mission I'll be useless on."

"Don't be so sure, Kanan. This one's from Senator Organa, and it could mean something big."

–

"According to the reports from Senator Organa, these attacks have been carried out with exact precision," Sato said over the hum of the holoprojector; Kanan could only tilt his head towards Sato's voice to indicate his attention but really kept working on expanding his senses. He could pick out members of Sato's command, but from the _Ghost_ there was only himself, Hera, and Zeb; Sabine was working on repairs to the _Phantom_ with Chopper and Ezra was probably studying one of the holocrons. Kanan hated thinking that his apprentice could open that Sith holocron, but their few arguments after Malachor and forced him to reluctantly give way to Ezra's point of view. If they were going to defeat the Inquisitors, Maul, Vader, the whole Empire, they needed to learn about the Sith, and right now Ezra was the only person who could get the Sith holocron to respond.

"Military, then? Staged to keep the civilians panicked?" Hera asked, drawing Kanan's attention back to the present. That was becoming a bad habit.

"The targets are military, but whomever is attacking them is not," Sato replied. "The news reports are claiming at least a team of six has been behind these attacks."

"But lemme guess, Organa doesn't think so," Zeb growled. "Think they'd join up?"

"That is what the senator hopes," Sato confirmed. "Also, Senator Organa thinks only one person is involved directly with the attacks."

"…one?" Kanan asked, brows folding. "What kind of one?"

He heard some soft beeps as Sato likely brought up an image. Kanan couldn't help his jaw clenching before Hera's hand reached over his to calm him. His uncertain feeling got worse when he heard Zeb groan, and Kanan turned towards where he hoped Hera was.

"What? What is it?"

"…a Jedi," Hera told him; her voice was only a little to the left of where his head was turned. "Another survivor."

"On Coruscant?" Kanan scoffed a little. "Not likely, unless they're really damn good at hiding."

"Then this one's no good at it, that's for sure," Zeb pointed out. "Big yellow laser sword and leapin' around like a fool –"

Kanan's head snapped towards Zeb. Yellow lightsaber. It couldn't be…

"Hera, what's this one look like?" Kanan pressed. He'd thought the 501st had killed them all, everyone in the Temple and anyone dumb enough to try and regroup there. "Tell me!"

 _It can't be her. She's good but not that good. She was just a kid._

"Ah…she has a scarf around her head, hard to tell," Hera struggled, but her hand tightened around his. "Commander, can you enhance that image?"

"One moment, Captain." More button pushes, Kanan clutching Hera's hand tighter. If she'd survived…he still couldn't see how she could have, not after hearing how many clones had marched on the Temple.

"Hera…" Kanan pleaded as the whir of the holoprojector stopped. "Tell me."

"…she looks a little younger than you."

 _Her. Definitely a her._

"Eyes are blue, um…a little bit of green, but quality isn't so good this close."

 _She did joke once our eyes were like the meeting point of a sky and an ocean. She'd never seen water except rain and from a pipe but she guessed._

"I…I think her hair's brown, too."

"Yeah, but lil' bits'f silver, too," Zeb added. "Bit lighter than the rest. Kanan, what's goin' on with you?"

 _Maybe when you come back, Master Billaba will make you a Knight, and you can train me for real? Please, Caleb? I don't want anyone else. You're my friend._

"…how are we getting to Coruscant?" Kanan asked, surprise from everyone around him slamming over his senses like a tidal wave. He heard Zeb's mouth open in protest but he cut in, "Don't argue with me, Zeb. Commander, how are we getting to Coruscant?"

Hera's grip around his fingers was like to break bone if she'd had the Force, but Kanan had to ignore the silent demand for the time being. Fifteen years thinking everyone in the Temple was gone, but…she had survived. Somehow, she had survived. Normally he'd just lock that kind of memory into the back of his head or drink it away, but this time…

"Senator Organa can make arrangements for a small team to accompany Princess Leia," Sato explained. "She is to take his seat in the Senate in a few months, when she turns sixteen, and will be arriving on the capital to observe the Senate herself in a few weeks. A small security team will be the best cover you could ask for."

"Security, I can do," Zeb pointed out, "but if Kanan's comin' –"

"I'm more than sure that the senator has a plan for that, Zeb," Hera interrupted. "We can make it work. Sabine and Ezra will be safe here?"

"The _Phantom_ still needs to finish out repairs, and with both my holocron and the…other one…Ezra has enough to work on," Kanan pointed out. "Yeah, I'm blind, but I can't sit this one out. I have to go."

"I will contact Senator Organa and see what can be arranged," Sato confirmed. "A third Jedi, even with incomplete training, can still be an advantage against the Empire. And, if she has an informant within the Imperial military, even better."

"It better be soon, commander," Kanan pressed. "I have to find her, before the Empire figures it out."

It was the least he could do. After everything that had gone wrong so far, at least he could reach back in time and make one thing right.


	2. Arc 1: Part 2

"What do you mean, I'm not coming, Kanan?!" Ezra was shouting at his back after Hera had filled in Sabine and Ezra; Kanan just wanted to get to his room, to chew on the sudden appearance of someone from so long ago it felt like another lifetime. _Was_ another lifetime. "If there's another Jedi, on Coruscant, why can't I come with you? You're not planning on foisting me off on another Jedi, are you?!"

"No, Ezra, I'm not doing that; you're my apprentice, full stop," Kanan insisted, though he didn't turn back to Ezra. He had too much to think about. "But we're talking the capital of the Empire here. I know Coruscant enough to help track down this newcomer."

 _She'll know all the shafts and tunnels, though. Gotta find her down deep._

"Two Jedi are better than one!" Ezra pushed back. The kid wasn't backing down; he learned that too well from his master. "Plus, yeah, you have the Force, but I can see, I can help you –"

"And if the Empire catches all three of us?" Kanan snapped, turning towards Ezra. Kanan could make out Ezra's outline, his aura in the Force; he couldn't do that with anyone else, yet. "If you stay, the rebellion still has a Jedi. You've got two holocrons to study and practice from and a new 'saber to build.

"I know you want to help, but this…this is something I have to do. Alone. Hera and Zeb will have my back, and if anything happens to me you can still train. But if you come, and the Empire not only gets me, but you, and her…"

Kanan sighed, shaking his head in frustration. He couldn't fail either of them. All he could do was just try. Just do.

"…please, Ezra. Just let me not worry about you."

He felt Ezra slowly agree before he heard the kid approach, then felt Ezra hug him tight around the chest. Kanan managed to return it, patting Ezra's thick hair a little.

"And get yourself a haircut while I'm gone, huh?"

"Kanan!" Ezra grumbled, but Kanan just laughed since he knew Ezra liked the simple concern, tousling his apprentice's hair before turning him loose. "All right, but bring her back to meet us, at least?"

"You got it," Kanan agreed before Ezra headed back for the common room. Kanan sighed and made sure Ezra's attention was off him before stepping into his room. He rubbed the back of his neck before going to sit on his bed, shaking his head slowly. He'd never once thought the past would run up on him so fast, not after getting away from it for fifteen years.

 _Maybe when you come back, Master Billaba will make you a Knight, and you can train me for real?_

He'd been fourteen then, about to leave the Jedi Temple for the first time with his master, to go to war. She'd been ten. Just ten, but a hot hand with a lightsaber and sometimes she ended up teaching him something about telekinesis, or going unseen in a crowd of people. Things she'd know living as a scavenger on Nar Shaddaa, things that just came naturally to her. He hadn't been Kanan Jarrus then, but Kanan knew she'd still be herself. Still Raen Kariya.

Hera's description was nothing compared to how Kanan remembered Raen, still a little kid but in a lot of ways older than that. Raen had a rare smile that he could always get out of her, especially after they'd had a spar in one of the advanced classes Raen technically shouldn't have been in. Kanan could see that smile now, as if she was right there; the ways her eyes glowed from under that fringe of her hair, sun making the silver hints shine gold…

 _I don't want anyone else. You're my friend._

A rap on his door and the sense of Hera pulled Kanan back again, and he had to take a few moments to ground himself back into the present before getting up to the door.

"I think I know what expression you're giving me," he quipped lightly once he'd keyed the door open and sensed Hera's insistent determination. "Y'know, arms crossed, lip-twist frown. Like you're gonna wring me for answers."

"You know full well I am," Hera retorted before her hands shoved into his chest, pushing him back into his room. "And, no, my arms aren't crossed."

"Yeah, got that," Kanan noted after catching himself from stumbling onto the floor. He sighed and walked backwards to his bunk so Hera could come in and sit once she closed the door behind herself.

"Talk to me, Kanan," Hera insisted as Kanan sat on his bunk again. "You know the Jedi that's been hitting the Empire on their home turf."

"…yeah," Kanan conceded. "Long time ago."

"Before the war long-time-ago?"

Kanan shifted uncomfortably on his bed. He'd told Hera some of his life before the Clone War – she'd wormed his old name out of him one time he was very drunk after she took him onto the _Ghost_ 's crew – but he did his best not to go back to those times if he could. It still surprised him as Hera's hand folded over his, and she moved from wherever she had been to sit next to him.

"I'll take that as a yes," Hera sighed. "Does she even _want_ to be found? You know her, Kanan, so…tell me."

"She was a kid the last time I saw her," Kanan muttered. "She was the last person to see me before the war. Whatever she's been up to, I don't know if she's still the same kid I knew…then."

"Well, she has your flair, I'll give her that," Hera teased, and Kanan smiled a little. "She must've really looked up to you."

"…she wanted me to be her master. Y'know, after the war and I finished my training. She always was crazy like that. I was all she had, really."

"That sounds familiar with the apprentice you have now," Hera pointed out. "You must be some kind of trouble magnet."

"You know me, right?" Kanan chuckled, and was rewarded with a soft laugh from Hera. "…just hope she doesn't get herself killed before we find her. She's good, but if the Rebellion can notice her the Empire definitely has."

"We'll make sure they haven't and get her to safety," Hera assured him. "And if the Empire finds out, well, at least we'll still have two lightsabers to cover an escape, huh?"

"You know it," Kanan agreed. "Just…"

"I know," Hera interrupted him, squeezing his hand tightly. "I'll be with you the whole way. Zeb, too, though how the senator is going to explain a Lasat bodyguard for his daughter is beyond me."

"I think he's going to like any possible costume even less."

–

"There's no chance I'm wearin' that getup!"

"Zeb, come on, it's not that bad!" Sabine tried to insist, but Kanan could sense her huge teasing smile and couldn't help one of his own. Sato had delivered on their cover for going into Coruscant with the young princess. Hera was going to take over as Leia's private shuttle pilot, so that wasn't much of a change for her. Kanan was still swallowing the fact he was supposed to be some kind of rep from some enclave on Alderaan that would cover for his blindness. Even though Zeb had gotten the role he was obviously going to be best at – Leia's personal bodyguard – the outfit, from what he could hear, was not what Zeb had been planning.

"What did you expect, you could walk out into Imperial Center with your own clothes and not be recognized?" Hera pointed out. She'd let Kanan run his hands over her Organa-friendly flight uniform and even if he couldn't sense color he could bet it was damn flattering for her: crisp high collar for both the undershirt and jacket, a captain's sigil over her heart, even a nice new cap for her headtails. Kanan was far too entertained with hearing Zeb try to keep as much distance between himself and whatever Sabine was brandishing towards him to get a feel for his own outfit. "Zeb, come on, you're an adult, right?"

"Is like puttin' me into a buckethead's suit, but less fun in gettin' it!" Zeb argued. That gave Kanan a bit to imagine and smothered a snicker. "What's so wrong wit' me bein' me for this job, huh?"

"Uh, the Empire knows what we look like?" Ezra offered; his own amusement whenever Zeb was the butt of a joke shone out clearly to Kanan through the Force. "Probably Kallus has a really thick profile for you, if anyone bothered to read it."

"Heh heh, very funny," Zeb griped, but a sigh from Sabine and a rattling sound meant she'd tossed the outfit – probably armor – at their muscle.

"Zeb, you wear it, and who knows! Maybe you'll like it! And when you get back, if you do like it, I can really make it a masterpiece," Sabine offered, just managing to cut off a few derisive hoots from Chopper up in the _Phantom_. Kanan heard the low growl Zeb saved strictly for the old astromech before Zeb finally grumbled a sigh.

"Fine, but I know 'm not gonna like it!" Zeb conceded. Kanan heard the faint rattling sound again – Zeb probably stooping to pick up the armor he hadn't caught from Sabine – before sensing the crew's attention shifting to him.

"All right, Kanan, your turn," Hera insisted. He could just nearly imagine the exact width of her smirk. "Both Zeb and I got a look, now it's your turn."

"As best I can, right," Kanan sighed, but he sensed Sabine cross the common to put a hand on his shoulder. Good kid, her. "Just tell me if I gotta run I'm not falling over myself."

"No skirt," Hera assured him, though Sabine snickered next to him. "I think the coat goes to your knees…is this even a coat…?"

Kanan reached out his hands and felt a soft, silky fabric – thicker than shimmersilk, though – slide into his grip. It was mostly loose fabric, with only a couple of seams holding it together, which made Kanan frown slowly. Tabards? Like from a Jedi robe? That wasn't smart.

"Looks like a shirt, that coat, and a belt to secure it," Hera added, tossing him the shirt though Kanan would have missed it if he hadn't heard the soft rustle of its approach. That one was definitely shimmersilk, the way the shirt tried to pour out of Kanan's hands onto the floor. "Must be standard diplomat wear, Force or no."

"Don't even," Kanan muttered. The last thing he needed was to be looking the Jedi part. "Now I'm starting to think Zeb's onto something, wearing our own clothes!"

"At least it's not Jedi drab, right?" Sabine pointed out. "I mean, that shirt's nice and plain, sure, but it really makes the colors and patterns on the coat pop. It's almost like I designed this, just nicer."

"And it's fitting for your cover," Hera insisted. "From the look of the IDs and other documents, Alderaan's home to a fairly small Miralukan enclave. Probably bringing a Miraluka representative is a way to tell the Empire they're not harboring real Jedi."

"Miraluka?" Ezra asked. "I've never heard of them before."

"Well there's not a lot of them left in the galaxy," Hera explained.

"They're human-like, but born without eyes," Kanan conceded; that part of his cover was decent, and probably not easy to fake. "Everyone in the species has a degree of Force-sensitivity to see through the Force. Not hard to mistake one for a real Force-sensitive. Some became Jedi before the war, but they come and go in terms of numbers."

"Which is why it's the perfect cover, minus the diplomacy part," Hera teased. Kanan turned towards her voice to make sure she saw his scowl.

"Who says I can't be diplomatic?!"

Even though there wasn't a definite answer it still got everyone to laugh, and Kanan grinned before sighing to gather up the outfit. Well, so long as it didn't put a neon sign saying 'hey I'm actually a Jedi if the look didn't give me away' over his head for every Imp to see, it'd work. And if they were really lucky, this mission would go smoothly.

Then again nothing had ever really gone smoothly for them. But Kanan would be damned if he didn't make sure it went as smooth as possible.


	3. Arc 1: Part 3

**_Coruscant - Two weeks later_**

"Imperial Senate control, this is shuttle _Valoren_ requesting permission to land, sending clearance codes now," Hera said into the com as the shuttle began its descent through Coruscant's outer atmosphere – not to mention the heavy planetary shields that would otherwise leave the ship and everyone aboard space debris orbiting the planet. To be honest, every instinct she had was telling her to turn tail and jump for the nearest seedy port she could lay in a course for, but they were here now, and Hera had no intention of leaving without making contact with this Jedi.

Her fingers tapped nervously on the shuttle's control panel as she waited for the traffic comptroller to verify the codes. After their covers had come through, it had been two weeks of rehearsal and ensuring Sabine, Ezra, and Chopper weren't going to get themselves into trouble. Hera had let Sato handle most of that; Kanan had been off-and-on distracted and Hera had to make sure he didn't get lost in his thoughts. Not that she minded, but she was worried. After losing his sight and recovering from that, Hera was sure Kanan was grappling with what had to be an identity crisis – to regain his sight, or some form of it, he had to rely on abilities that he hadn't needed or readily admitted to for fifteen years, if not longer. But with that came all the baggage of his old life, of Caleb Dume. Hera made a point not to pry, but given that their possible recruit was someone Kanan – or, rather, Caleb – had known was throwing off their usual vibe for a mission.

" _Shuttle_ Valoren _, clearance codes accepted_ ," the comptroller replied, and Hera had to exhale slowly in relief. " _Sending you course to docking bay seven-five-zero at the Senate spaceport. Senator Organa and his retinue will be there to greet you._ "

"Course read in and confirmed," Hera reported as the navicomputer twittered with the uploaded coordinates. "Thanks, control, on our way, _Valoren_ out."

Flying the shuttle wasn't like flying the _Ghost_ ; once Hera activated the course, the autopilot could take them most of the way down, and if she needed to make a correction she just had to type the commands through the console. No yoke to speak of, so if they had to make a quick escape she had to hope the computer could keep up with her.

"First time to Imperial Center, captain?" her copilot – one of Organa's men, fully aware of the Rebel team slipping down with him and the princess – asked as they cleared the last of the shields and descended through a mild lightning storm.

"That obvious, lieutenant?" Hera asked in answer. The man smiled faintly and nodded.

"So long as you keep a fair step out of the Empire's view, you'll be all right," he advised. "As soon as one of their snoops gets a scent, they won't let go until they know where you stand."

"I doubt we'll be here that long," Hera insisted, "but I'll keep that in mind. You have the landing?"

"Yes, ma'am," he agreed, switching the controls over to his side of the cockpit. "You going to check on the passengers?"

"One, really, but since he's not howling I think he's all right," Hera replied with a grin before getting up from her seat. She even gave her jacket a small straightening tug – not quite sure what to make of wearing something so smooth, really – before keying opening the door separating the cockpit from the main cabin. As expected, Hera noted that Princess Leia was calmly in her seat, strapped in against the light turbulence of the storm outside; Zeb was folded up in the back, but his eyes were narrowed very unhappily and kept tugging at the collar of his new armor. He at least gave Hera a small nod when she came in, so she was sure Zeb wasn't making trouble like he might have been for once.

Kanan was across from the princess, arms crossed over his chest and head leaned back. Hera wouldn't have admitted it to the rest of the crew, but the diplomatic wear he'd received for his cover really did suit him. Instead of the crisp military look she and Zeb had, Hera imagined the outfit was closer to what Kanan might wear as a proper Jedi Knight, just with more color and probably less chest showing. The white undershirt hung open to Kanan's sternum, a small collar just brushing along the edge of his neck, and gave a crisp backdrop for the green coat layered over it. The coat also came with a fairly deep hood to hide his eyes, and Leia had even gifted Kanan a carved metal visor to wear under it to hide his eyes. Apparently the Miraluka of Alderaan were aware of a Jedi passing as one of their own and they were more than happy to even distantly welcome him into their community. Kanan hadn't put on the visor yet, so the faint scarring across his eyes was clearly visible.

As Hera stepped inside and closed the door after getting the nod from Zeb, Kanan's head came up to half-turn for her. Hera still felt a sickened pang in her chest when she saw Kanan's eyes were open, but his eyes – once bright blue-green and full of life and mischief – were pale and blurred, the color burned out to an off-white no thanks to a Sith.

"So we got through?" Kanan asked after his eyes wandered a bit, eventually focusing just to Hera's left. "No trouble from the Imps?"

"None so far," Hera confirmed, and the princess offered them a smile.

"At least that much," Leia pointed out. "Usually the comptrollers make us wait in high orbit for some other bureaucrat to move out, or in. I've never understood or cared for whatever precedence they try to invent."

"Better than getting pulled in for a scan, or, worse, a full search," Kanan agreed. "So, what's next?"

"We land and meet with my father," Leia answered over a rumble of thunder and a brief shiver through the shuttle's fuselage. "He can give you full details on the patterns he's noticed with this Jedi and hopefully point you towards her next target."

"No chances of finding her base of operations?" Hera asked. It was usually easier to find recruits by tracking them from a raid to where they went to ground, and approaching their stronghold, or somewhere on neutral ground, to make that initial contact. Dangerous for them, sure, but if there was trouble they did have Kanan to sense it coming.

"If it's Raen, she won't make it easy to find," Kanan answered. "She's going to go down to the lower levels, somewhere only she can get to. She used to talk about some of the dens she'd made on Nar Shaddaa and moving whenever it got too cramped or anything bigger than her got in."

"Which is going to make following her even more difficult," Leia added. "Below the first hundred levels or so the Imperial presence does increase somewhat, but so does the criminal element. It gets worse even further down."

"Well, it's a start," Hera decided.

"It'd better be, so's I can get outta this rig," Zeb grumbled from his corner, unfolding to stand and resettle closer to them. "Itches somethin' fierce."

"Stop complaining already; you've had to make a comment every time I come back here," Hera sighed, shaking her head even as Zeb tugged at his collar again.

"Even more, trust me," Kanan pointed out with a faint smirk, and Hera couldn't help but return it. Sometimes Kanan was still the same he'd been since she met him, and it was good to see that.

"Besides, you're still not fully dressed yet yourself," Hera teased slightly. Kanan's coat still hung loose – a brown sash was meant to secure it closed – and the Empire would never buy him being Miraluka if his blinded eyes were blatantly visible for the whole capital to see.

"Fine, but I still want to get into my clothes once we don't have to keep on with these covers," Kanan muttered. He sat through another shiver of turbulence before standing from his seat and getting the sash tied around his waist. With it, the coat and shirt formed a layered V neckline that almost made Kanan seem taller than he already was, and there was an obvious shift in his stance as he reached back to raise the hood – from the smuggler she knew to the Jedi he had once been, or was becoming.

"Ah, wait, you're missing something," Hera insisted before he had the hood fully raised, reaching to where Kanan had left the visor aside when they had taken off from Atollon. He paused long enough for Hera to rise up on her toes and gently slide the visor over his eyes. For a brief moment, it felt like Kanan _was_ looking at her; those blank pupils fixed directly to her, and Hera was sure he knew how close she was. It left warm shivers running down her spine, even as she set the visor in place and let her fingertips trail gently down his cheeks. "There. Now you can finish the look."

"Wasn't the only thing missing," Kanan teased with a smirk, even as he dropped the hood over his head. Hera still gave him a punch to the arm for that.

"Later, love; now, we get to settle in to our landing," Hera told him before settling in next to Leia and strapping in for the rest of the flight into Coruscant proper. Kanan sat back down with Zeb, and luckily the initial turbulence trailed off as they descended. The shuttle didn't come with windows, which was probably easier on all of their nerves.

"Making our final approach, princess, stand by for landing," the lieutenant announced over the com, and Hera sighed. So far, no problems; that was either a good sign or an indicator of just how bad things were going to get. Hera heard and felt the shuttle's engines switch off, power getting routed to the repulsorlifts, and imagined the shuttle sliding smoothly towards a docking platform, wings folding upward neatly as the landing struts extended. She didn't notice she was holding another breath until she let it go after proper gravity kicked in with the shuttle's landing.

"Somebody was nervous," Zeb prodded with a fierce smirk as Hera got up.

"Hey, it's not a ship I'm flying, of course I was nervous," Hera countered. The last thing she wanted Zeb guessing was that she didn't like being in the very heart of the Empire they wanted to overthrow. It was still nice that Kanan's hand took hers, squeezing gently as Leia's proper guards formed up near the hatch. Zeb remembered his role and grumbled before marching up to join them, and Kanan had to slip his hand free to stand next to Leia, roughly in the center of the guard formation. Time to make sure the Empire didn't suspect a thing.

–

The smell and feel of Coruscant hit Kanan like riding the _Phantom_ out of hyperspace: a lot of vibrating and shaking, but hanging on just enough to manage through the initial drag. He had never wanted to come back here, not after he had aborted a lightspeed jump when he received Master Kenobi's warning about the Temple's fall to the Empire. Coruscant had been home for Caleb Dume and somewhere Kanan Jarrus had never wanted to go to. Now he was here and all Kanan wanted to do was turn and run all over again.

 _Not alone this time_ , part of him insisted. _Find Raen. Save Raen._

Kanan ground his jaw slightly before he automatically put his hand onto the princess's shoulder when he sensed the guards starting down the ramp, with them soon to follow. The sooner they found Raen, Kanan decided, the sooner they could get out of here and not risk being caught. How Organa managed it, he'd never know.

Leia, at least, kept a light, gentle pace that he could easily match as they descended the ramp, and Kanan automatically tried to get himself oriented by turning to look around; obviously, that didn't work like it used to. But the Force filled in a little of what he needed: a burst of power megablocks away had to be the Jedi Temple, but much closer was a steady pulse of darkness with a similar feeling like Vader. The only difference was this one was purer darkness, less present than Vader was but no less dangerous and malevolent. Kanan suppressed a shudder and remembered to scatter his Force-presence as much as possible – keep hidden from whomever that feeling belonged to.

He refocused on the immediate scene in front of him and sensed a familiar masculine presence full of both calm and conviction. Bail Organa was an impressive man, something Kanan couldn't quite rectify with himself ever since he and the rest of the _Ghost_ 's crew had met him nearly a year ago. The man was a senator from not just any Core world, but one of the founding members of the Old Republic – and was one of the leaders of the rebellion Kanan now found himself a willing operative for. The fact that Organa was somehow keeping his ties to the rebellion secret enough that the Empire couldn't do anything about it to the point of denying Alderaan's culpability – like when Leia had delivered three cruisers to Phoenix Squadron and they had staged their theft – was enough for Kanan to decide Organa was a trustworthy ally.

"Welcome to Coruscant, ambassador, a pleasure to meet you again," Organa greeted Kanan warmly. Kanan's grip moved from Leia's shoulder to extend for the senator's hand, a gesture Organa returned firmly. "I see you had no troubles with your arrival; was the rest of the journey as smooth?"

"Very much, thank you," Kanan remembered to reply; he was the ambassador, not Leia. _Way to go, Kanan, shoot yourself in the foot while you're at it_. "I'm sorrier your daughter's shuttle had to be rerouted into the Rim to pick me up."

"It really wasn't any trouble, ambassador, you're too modest," Leia replied for her father, and Kanan managed an embarrassed smirk because Leia's honesty flared out. He let go of Organa's hand as the Senator turned towards his daughter.

"Now, let's head for my private suite; we can discuss business there," Organa decided. "Not to mention I want to hear all about your new bodyguard, Leia. However did you cross paths with a Lasat?"

"I ask myself that every day since she took me on, uh, sir," Zeb answered, only stammering once. _Not bad, big guy,_ Kanan had to allow. "Served in the Honor Guard before Lasaan burned, and it's nice to get out'f the merc trade for awhile."

It had been Leia's insistence that Zeb stick to his own story rather than inventing a background like Kanan and Hera had; that way, there was less chance of Zeb possibly offending anyone outright and he didn't screw up details that could draw too much attention. Zeb's initial argument had been he was perfectly able to keep his story and a cover straight, but some practice caught him slipping up more than even Hera could stand. Part of Zeb's discomfort had been less the disguise and more the details for the rest of the trip after that.

"Glad to hear it; we can discuss the full details of your employment at the same time," Organa informed them. "Follow me, if you will. Leia, could you continue acting as our guests' guide?"

Leia nodded, not without kissing her father on the cheek in greeting before she returned to Kanan's side and let his hand land on her shoulder again.

"Nicely done, _ambassador_ ," Leia murmured to him as they got underway, Organa in the lead, into the Senate building. "Looks like the last-minute fix to your friend's cover is going to pay off."

"Just so long as I keep myself in order, this whole job should go smoothly," Kanan agreed in an undertone of his own. He sensed Leia's amusement clearer than hearing her chuckle and allowed himself a small smile of his own.

Kanan couldn't have retraced their steps from the shuttle's docking bay to Organa's private rooms even if he could see. They twisted through corridors and past more bureaucrats than Kanan could have expected even before the end of the Republic, not to mention plenty of stormtrooper patrols that spiked Zeb's temper though the Lasat didn't outwardly react beyond his usual bad mood. Here and there they emerged from aide-specific corners into wider spaces where Organa paused to greet colleagues and introduce Leia and "Ambassador Kifeoth of the Miralukan Enclave". Kanan shook more senators' hands than he cared to count, but he heard and sensed enough to figure out how Organa kept his rebel ties hidden: he had political allies that shared those sympathies, forming a solid faction against the Empire being even worse than it already was.

After the hand-shaking and a few more weaving twists, their little band reached what Kanan assumed was their destination. Their surroundings were quiet enough that Kanan could hear Organa type a code into a pad, opening what he assumed was a secured room that maybe the Empire didn't have bugged. Better than Organa's main offices, that was sure.

"Captain, are we secure?" Organa asked after Kana heard the faint pneumatic hiss of the door. The long pause was enough for Kanan to kick at Zeb's ankle.

"What, what?!" Zeb griped.

" _Captain_ ," Kanan growled faintly. "The senator asked if we were secure. Answer him."

"…oh," Zeb sighed as he remembered, then padded forward, beyond the doorway as he swept for bugs. Kanan took a chance to try and sense things out himself, but there wasn't anything he could make out. After a few minutes, Zeb called out, "Suite's secure, senators, ambassador."

"Thank you, captain, I'm sure you were thorough," Organa commended, though Kanan sensed Organa was all right with Kanan prodding Zeb back into his role. Leia guided Kanan inside, and about twenty paces in she guided him down onto a couch. Zeb flopped down next to him and passed Kanan a tumbler of what Kanan prayed was something alcoholic.

"Is Hera part of this meeting?" Kanan asked when he heard the door close but didn't sense Hera in the room.

"Unfortunately due to procedural requirements, I couldn't find a way to bring her up physically," Organa apologized. "I've my comlink on so she can hear this briefing, and she can rendezvous with you after we get you two settled in your quarters."

Kanan nodded acceptance of the situation before sniffing, then sipping, his drink. It was a decent whiskey, probably and undoubtedly a very nice Corellian vintage, with some water to reduce the edge on the burn. Training Ezra had forced Kanan to keep sober to the point of having a dry ship, but Kanan knew not to rush back into drinking too much.

"So, now that we're here, fill us in," Kanan insisted after he'd had maybe half of the whiskey, enough to be polite but not being too casual. "You think there's a Jedi survivor on Coruscant and causing trouble for the Empire."

"More than just 'think so', Master Jarrus," Organa answered; Kanan couldn't help a slight uncomfortable shift at the honorific. "She's struck another convoy while you were en route, and this time the ISB couldn't edit out the lightsaber."

Kanan heard a holorprojector activate and he swallowed his sigh of exasperation, along with some more of the whiskey.

"A couple more things I've noted; although she has a lightsaber, there's no traces of it on any of the transports she's raided, and she doesn't leave a single dead soldier even though her lightsaber's struck them," Organa added. "I'm sure you understand lightsaber construction better than I do, Master Jarrus –"

"Just Kanan, Senator, please," Kanan had to insist.

"Kanan, forgive me," Organa corrected himself. "But it doesn't seem as though her lightsaber's at full power."

"Kanan'n Ezra have low-power modes, for sparrin'," Zeb pointed out. "Maybe she don' wanna make a bad name killin' anyone she don't hafta."

"Maybe," Kanan muttered, "and in all this time she could've built her own full-powered lightsaber."

 _Unless she tried referencing anything from the Temple and it kept her from getting to any instructions,_ Kanan added silently. Training lightsabers were locked in low-power mode, and if Raen couldn't build herself a real lightsaber then all she had _was_ that training blade. It was strong enough to knock out an opponent on a good strike, but it didn't do much more damage than that.

"Whatever the case, she still moves too quickly to effectively trace where she goes after she steals supplies," Organa continued. "Usually, she leaves a speeder near where she plans to hit a convoy, ensures the supply transport is closest, then moves the cargo over after causing some small mayhem to distract the Imperial escort. Within ten minutes, she's gotten the supplies and taken off in the speeder with them."

"No chance to track the speeder?" Kanan asked.

"She hotwires a new one for each target, and dumps her ride fairly quickly after the strike in case of that very thing," Organa replied.

"Then how do we find her?" Zeb pressed. "What, jus' sit and wait for the next supply convoy and run her down?"

Kanan sensed that smile long before Organa actually gave it. That was when he drained the whiskey and was ready for another.


	4. Arc 1: Part 4

As usual, Raen's inside man had given her good information. After the raid that had basically confirmed to the ISB a Jedi was running loose on Coruscant, he'd tried to talk her out of doing another one so quickly. The specific wording had been 'you're _shabla jare'la_ to do a back-to-back run'. Raen wasn't well-versed in Mando'a, but she had a feeling he was calling her insane. Maybe she was; maybe insanity was the only explanation for this need to do _something_.

Plus, it was fun to make the Imps jump.

She lifted a pair of macrobinoculars to her face and scouted out the route. From the nearest supply depot to her sector, the convoy to the sector's spaceport had to come down this boulevard; the walker escort couldn't fit through the narrower streets and alleys. Raen had already plotted out her route once she had the loot, but if she mistimed any aspect she'd not only lose the cargo but her freedom.

But that was what made it fun.

Raen had her training 'saber and a blaster pistol as her only armaments. Utility meant she had a code cylinder stuffed up one sleeve and a fifty-meter fibercord grapple with a magnetic hook on her belt. The grapple was only in case she needed the assistance for a tricky maneuver, and, so far, had gone unused, along with a set of special surprises that she had nabbed on a whim when she had lifted weaponry from the Empire once. Her contact might think she was reckless, but Raen had sat idle and useless for too long. The past three years of actually doing something was better than reducing herself to the scavenger child of Nar Shaddaa. She didn't have her powers just to stop using them when the Jedi were driven to extinction.

There were a few people out on the boulevard, but Raen's focus was on the side alley where she had parked the first link of her getaway plan. Five speeder bikes were lined up, but the one on the far left was hooked up and ready to launch to her voice command. She would only be able to lift two crates from the full supply, but the last time she'd tried taking everything Raen had come far too close to getting killed. She only frowned briefly when she spotted a green Twi'leki woman approach one of the bikes – not hers. So long as she didn't go to the left one…

Raen's senses flickered, and she folded up the binocs as she spotted the convoy on approach. She unhooked her 'saber and crouched to wait.

There were two two-legged walkers that led the convoy, marching steadily but slowly for the troop and cargo transports that made up the rest of the lineup. Following the Imperial protocols that she'd been exposed to, Raen counted back two transports and mentally tagged the first of the cargo speeders. The troopers for the convoy would be on that one faster than scavengers on a fresh crash if she dropped on that one. But the hauler three more back, _that_ would be her meal ticket. Hers, and enough for her neighbors, at least for a week. Technically her last haul was supposed to still be feeding them, but Black Sun had heard of that mess and "confiscated" half of the supplies she'd left for neighbors to pick up. Raen could care less about Black Sun taking the loot – she still had to let them have at least a quarter of whatever she lifted – but Black Sun had the power structure that, if they wanted to push the fact she was Force-sensitive, they could make her life hell.

Today wasn't going to be that day.

Raen cleared her mind except for her plan and goal, and the Force crackled through her as she drew it in. For a moment she felt a familiar niggling sensation in the back of her head, as if someone was close and _knew_ she was, too. Raen put it out of her mind before stepping off the edge of her overlook. The drop was ten stories, and her stomach leaped into her throat, but Raen held the Force close, let it fill her from toes to brows, and cushioned her landing with relative ease. She rolled, as planned, behind a stack of crates and one dumpster in the mouth of an alleyway. Peering out, her speeder waited across the boulevard and to her right; exactly as planned. The first of the transports was passing as she waited, coiling ready for her attack.

The tingle of a presence itched at the back of her mind again, as if pinging her. Raen locked her jaw into a scowl and refocused some of her energy, flattening, then thinning, her Force-self into near-nothingness. Once it was thinned, Raen stretched it out until there were only a few specks of her specific self in the Force close to her real location.

"Damn red-bladed hunters," she breathed before refocusing on the plan. Transport the third coasted past; soon would come her target. If the hunters came at her in the middle of the recovery, she wouldn't be able to line something up like this again for at least a month. She couldn't let that happen. Wouldn't.

As the fourth transport cruised past her, Raen set down her 'saber to reach into the pouch where her surprises waited: two electromagnetic pulse grenades and one bioshocker that would knock out the driver and any backup that would be inside. Hopefully she could keep one of the pulse grenades. Transport five came past, and Raen primed the grenades.

Her target began to sail into view, and Raen released the pulse grenade. With the Force, the grenade spun towards the transport, and with a light lift it dug into the underside with three seconds to spare. Everything began to slow once the pulse crackled, sending the transport careening as its systems shorted out. Raen scooped up her weapon as she vaulted out from hiding, hurling the bioshocker as she soared into the air.

The door into the transport's steering area dragged open right as the bioshocker sailed towards it, and with a light nudge Raen sent it over the shoulder of the unfortunate Imp at the opening and any of his friends soon to be reduced to a shivering, drooling mess for the next half-rotation. She landed easily atop the transport, and she snapped her 'saber on as she turned for where the crates of rations were anchored for the time being.

Immersed in the Force as she was, Raen moved on pure reactive instinct. Blaster bolts winged towards her, but the yellow blade batted them away with only a few twists of her wrist. She hit the maglocks on the crates and, with a bare furrow of her brow, willed two of them to fly towards her bike. Almost there, almost –

Her concentration shattered as a wave of intent crashed past her, and Raen snarled to herself as her hold on the Force halved, forcing the crates to skid to a halt on the roadway. Raen lifted her 'saber into a guard, but a loud roar and a rash of blaster bolts _not_ aimed at her sailed into the stormtroopers trying to hit her. A purple-furred thing – Lasat? Weren't they all extinct? – sprinted past her right, hands working at a bo-rifle as it stretched from blaster rifle to electrostaff. It was as if he was giving her cover! She'd never seen a Lasat, much less any specific one, before; she would remember bargaining with a Lasat if she ever brought anyone on her supply raids.

"Kriffing hells," Raen swore before she bolted for the crates, refocusing as best as she could to _lift_ the crates again, then drag them after her to the bike. The green Twi'lek was still there, holding a snubnose pistol and firing at the soldiers, too. "Who in nine hells are you supposed to be?!"

"Good guys, like you!" the Twi'lek answered, even as she stepped into cover and pulled out a comlink. "Spectre Four, get out of there, we've got the goods!"

 _Goods. They won't be taking my supplies. They want_ me _!_

Raen took all of three seconds to latch the crates to her bike, mount it, then snap out "go!" which the bike heard and roared to life in response under her. Raen thumbed the throttle open all the way and zipped off down the alley. No way was she going to let a pair of bounty hunters take her in! The Empire didn't even know she existed!

The tingling sense struck again as Raen turned out into a skylane, and she looked over her shoulder to see the sleek black profile and Imperial logos of an approaching speeder. The red glow behind the windscreen was all she needed to see before twisting the gear and taking off as fast as she could. Not today. She hadn't survived Order 66 just to be taken down because of either a pair of strange bounty hunters or the red bladed stalkers that had started chasing her since they'd caught her in the Temple!

She gunned the bike down the lane, and prayed to the few powers she knew. At the very last, Raen couldn't help one final whisper.

"Caleb. _Please_."

–

"Karabast, bolted!" Zeb growled as Kanan ran out of where he'd been hiding. That blur that had hit the convoy would have been hard for anyone without the Force to see, but Kanan had seen it. It had been beautiful, but also raw and unfocused. Even if he hadn't heard Raen's description from all the holos, Kanan would have known that had been Raen. He tilted his head towards Zeb as the Lasat growled, "Now what?"

"Bikes!" Hera insisted. "Kanan, with me!"

He didn't need to ask why, but Kanan made sure he was able to focus on Hera and got onto one of the remaining speeder bikes behind her.

 _Caleb._

Kanan held onto Hera tighter than he meant to as they took off, but the whisper in his head drew a clear line through the Force, an echo of the path Raen had taken. Somehow, he knew they were…connected.

 _Please!_

"Right!" Kanan shouted over the wind shear, and was grateful that Hera could hear him. He shouted directions as best he could, following the link between himself and Raen.

 _I'm coming_ , he thought, trying to reach out to her. _I'm coming, just hold on, Raen_.

 _CALEB!_

"She's in trouble, I gotta drive!" Kanan growled in frustration. If he wasn't blind, if he could just see…

"Kanan, Inquisitors up ahead, looks like!" Hera called back; Kanan started feeling them as he pushed his senses outward. "One speeder, but there might be more than one of them inside!"

"Tail 'em, Spectre Two," he ordered; it was time for business, and if they could get the Inquisitors' eyes on them, for just long enough, they could catch up to Raen later. "Spectre Four, loop around, try to keep eyes on Raen!"

Kanan sensed Zeb's affirmative – probably a thumbs-up – before the Lasat peeled off. Kanan tightened his hold around Hera's waist and sighed weakly, trying to focus on the connection, but Raen was getting focused on outrunning the Inquisitors. She wasn't going to manage that without their help, one way or another.

"Get me in close, Hera!"

"You're crazy! Kanan, you _can't –_ "

"You know me, don't you? Now get me in close!"

Kanan sensed Hera's exasperation and didn't blame her, but the speeder hurtled closer to where he felt the Inquisitors – plural. He sensed a line of Force direction towards her bike, but a slash from her sent what must have been the circular blade of one of the Inquisitors spinning off down to the abyss Kanan knew was below them. If he misjudged this…

No. No, he couldn't doubt himself. Not now. Not this time. Hera was counting on him, so were Zeb and Raen. He had to do this.

He felt the Inquisitors' speeder coming closer, Hera piloting them right up towards the underbelly. Kanan gave Hera's shoulders an additional squeeze as he braced himself on her, pulling his feet under him so he crouched on the back of the bike. It was a good thing Sabine had seen them off with plenty of explosives, and Kanan made sure the Force was balancing him as he reached into his belt and pulled free a detonator.

 _The laser sword's okay, I guess, but those little bomb things are a lot faster,_ Raen had told him once. That little adage had gotten him through a lot in the past few years, and Kanan couldn't help a small smile as he stood on the bike. The wind shear buffeted at him, but the Force kept him steady as Kanan planted the detonator and set the timer.

"Down, down, go!" he ordered as he dropped down again, and Hera gunned the bike forward, dipping under the Inquisitor craft. He heard the explosion behind him almost dimly, but the sense of the Inquisitors' surprise and panic as their speeder started to fall made Kanan's grin spread fiercely. Now they just had to catch up to Raen.

"Spectre Four, we've stalled the Imps, what's your status?" Hera asked into the comlink as they got moving again, following the flow of traffic but Kanan couldn't pinpoint where Raen had gone. So much for having a bond with her if she kept dropping out of his awareness.

" _Spectre Two, I managed to tail 'er to a cargo train stop,"_ Zeb reported. That smacked of familiarity to Kanan again, made it hard to stay anchored on the present without a tight hug around Hera's waist. He knew where she was now. " _By now she's prob'ly camped out in a car to get outta this sector. Train's pullin' out soon. Want me to catch a ride?"_

"Negative, Spectre Four," Kanan said before Hera could tell Zeb yes. "She bolted with the unasked backup, if she sees you again she'll either run or fight."

"What's your plan, Spectre One?" Hera called back to him. "Somehow, I know I'm not going to like it."

Kanan leaned forward to smile against the back of Hera's neck; she knew him so well.

"Zeb, follow the train, we'll catch up with you soon," Kanan advised. "Hera, we got enough fuel to briefly match speeds with that train?"

"While also burning out the engine for good? Yeah," Hera sighed. Kanan sensed her resignation and realization of what he planned to do. "Just tell me she's not going to lead you off on a chase if she sees you."

"Gonna find out soon," Kanan told her. "Take a left up ahead, then down to level three-six-one. You'll see the signs for the station soon."

Hera's _lekku_ twitched against his chest in affirmation, and the shifting breeze kept Kanan aware of their progress. The air cooled significantly as they began their descent, and as they approached the train station Kanan started to feel the familiar untrained hum of Raen's passing, getting stronger. He nearly reached out to her again, but as soon as he thought it Raen's presence scattered again; she knew she was being followed.

"Kanan, the train's already pulling out!" Hera warned him as she made a final turn and Kanan smelled the industrial zing of the refueling platform. The vicious hum of the repulsor rail was too far to be clear, but the familiarity magnified the sound. "I can't keep up once it gets to full speed!"

"I'll call once I'm off, then you and Zeb catch up!" Kanan said as he gathered himself into a crouch again. A flash of frustration told him exactly what Hera thought, but Kanan knew it was the only way. Raen would only keep running until she could get somewhere to hide; the only person she would consider stopping for was someone fifteen years forgotten. Kanan was the closest she'd get.

As Hera swung into position and sped up to follow the train, Kanan angled himself, following the sound of the train to get an idea of how far he'd have to jump. His brows folded as he focused, wishing for just a moment to see clearly. He wouldn't miss. He had to do this. Kanan dimly heard Hera shout something in warning, but the Force and the sound of the train drowned her out. It rang in his ears, charged his limbs, and when Kanan leaped from the bike he felt a guiding arc, from the bike to the roof of the train car. He only pinwheeled his arms once and Kanan just managed to catch onto the edge of the train's roof –

Right before he had to squeeze himself tight against the wall as the train raced into a tunnel. Hera's sense faded as Kanan rocketed away from her, but Raen was closer now. Her presence was starting to recoalesce, but slowly, wary. She probably guessed she was still being followed, but not by whom. Kanan wasn't Caleb, after all.

He held tight until the tunnel opened, and Kanan levered himself up onto the roof of his car with a sigh. Now to find Raen before she got off and vanished.

Familiarity and memory clawed at the edges of his awareness as Kanan took off along the top of the train, jumping the gaps between cars because he remembered where they were, how many strides it took from one end to the other. He instantly dropped to his stomach when the train sped into another tunnel, remembering that specific turn. This was the same line a Jedi apprentice had chased after a Jedi initiate on a lifetime ago.

Kanan kept moving until he reached the sixth car forward from where he'd clung on, fighting the wind shear and being sucked into the past. Raen's presence radiated out from inside, and even though he felt her trying to disappear again Kanan also sensed her wariness, her curiosity. It must have been ages since she felt another Jedi; he knew the feeling from when he had felt Ezra on Lothal. He shuffled forward, arms raised against the fist of the wind despite the Force keeping him upright, until the toe of his boot hit a hatch. _There_. Instead of using his 'saber to open it, Kanan ducked to pull free the latch, then slid inside through the opening headfirst. He just managed to catch himself from falling on his backside, but sighed in relief to be out of the wind – and, if his guess was right, somewhere in front of Raen. He let himself sit down on the floor of the car and sigh again, catching his breath before the soft hum of a lightsaber – not his – filtered into his ringing ears.

"Some way to say hi," Kanan grumbled as he tilted his head towards the hum. "First you bolt from my friends, then we cover your backside from those Inquisitors only to find you hopping trains, again…"

"I'm supposed to thank you?" a voice that only distantly sounded like the voice Kanan remembered as Raen's answered. _She doesn't recognize me._ She didn't even notice his little quip about their old habits. "You and your friends could have gotten me killed. Now the Imps are going to think it's more than one person raiding their convoys."

"It's what Jedi do," Kanan said as he stood slowly, then turned for her voice. "Especially Jedi like you and me."

"Said like I'm supposed to know who you are," Raen argued, but Kanan sensed her uncertainty. He could see her outline, just like with Ezra, but unlike the kid's Raen's was spikier, more suspicious. But as she looked at him, really looked, Kanan saw the spikes shrink slowly, and smooth lines of light flickered within the outline, fragments of her appearance blinking through. That was new. "…who…who are you? I…I know you. I _do_ know you."

"It's definitely been awhile, and we've both changed a lot," Kanan replied, voice softening. "Maybe you don't recognize me, but I think you'll recognize this."

He reached for the 'saber parts on his belt, connecting emitter and hilt before presenting the weapon for Raen to see. The spikes in her aura vanished, shifting to waves of surprise and uncertainty. The hum of her own 'saber died, and Kanan heard her take a few steps closer.

"…where did you get that?" she whispered, voice shaking. "Where?"

"I made it," Kanan answered, even as his chest clenched. "When Depa Billaba accepted me as her apprentice."

A clatter of a fallen lightsaber hilt rang out as the uncertainty vanished in an explosion of warmth and remembrance, and for the first time since being blinded Kanan could suddenly _see_ , and it was Raen, the outline filled in. He recognized her face, but not the angled features that she had grown into. Her eyes were the same. The breakthrough faded, leaving Raen's outline, bright and nebulous, though the rough edges still grated a little on his senses.

"Caleb?" she asked, almost hopefully. "It…it's you? It's really you?"

"…yes and no," Kanan replied, even as his chest clenched tighter at hearing his old name again. "Fifteen years does a number on you. After what happened. I'm Kanan now."

"Kanan," Raen murmured, some of her bright eagerness fading, the kid he remembered withdrawing slightly. "I…I guess it suits you."

Kanan took a step closer to her, and mercifully Raen didn't move away from him, not even as he raised a hand and took her shoulder tightly.

"I never forgot you," he told her. "When I heard about a Jedi taking out Imperial supplies on Coruscant, I knew it was you. I thought you were dead but I knew it was you."

Raen looked up at him – hells, he was so much taller than her now – but Kanan felt her smile, felt the gratitude that he'd come back.

"…c'mon, Fish," he murmured, using the name that had been hers before she came to the Temple. He had been the only one she'd told, who was allowed to use it. "I might be slower than you but I'm not stupid."

"Guess not," Raen answered, voice even but Kanan felt her happiness – to see him again, to know he'd come back even after so long. It was a few beats longer before Raen had thrown her arms around him, head buried into his chest, and Kanan held her tight. The Force glowed between them, and Kanan felt a bond – old, nearly-forgotten, but strong – between them begin to flare. He _knew_ the bond; a similar one connected him and Ezra. Master and apprentice.

"…missed you, Caleb," Raen muttered. "So much."

"Missed you, too, Raen," Kanan sighed into her hair. Now that he'd found her, it was time to leave Coruscant with her, and the sooner, the better.


	5. Arc 1: Part 5

It was so strange to have Caleb literally fall back into her life – and stranger yet that he didn't _feel_ like Caleb. Raen was still puzzling out the fact that Caleb had changed his name and she was sure she was going to either forget calling him Kanan or just give him a nickname so she didn't confuse herself. But after seeing his lightsaber, hearing him calling her Fish, it was…good.

Not so good was seeing the toll the years had taken on him. Raen got him to sit down near the door of the freight car, shoving the door open like in the old days, but Caleb's face never turned from roughly her direction – showing the years between her memory of him and the present, the faint scruff of a beard along his jaw, excluding the existing strip on his chin. The metal visor over his eyes made Raen's gut clench in worry, remembering her nightmare of a few weeks ago. Not nightmare; vision. That made her nervous about a bond, but when she tried to ask about it Caleb just waved her off.

"Look, I don't know if you've noticed, but some of the Empire's worst are coming after you," he told her after just sitting and watching – or maybe sensing – Coruscant speed past. "Not just the ISB."

"The red blades?" Raen asked; Caleb's head leaned back in surprise. "Yeah, they've been after me off and on for a few years. Mostly I give them a good chase and lose them before I head back to my hole."

"How many of them?" he pressed.

"I think they've got three on me right now," Raen admitted, which got curses that the old Caleb might have flushed to say aloud streaming out of the new Caleb like industrial sewage out of a Hutt power factory. "Wow, it's not like they're hard to get around…"

"Raen, Inquisitors aren't that stupid," Caleb told her sharply. _Inquisitors_. That must be the real name for those stalkers. "Their leader died hunting me and my apprentice, and two more came after us after that."

It wasn't hearing that Caleb had faced some Inquisitors himself that made Raen look away, something deep down inside twinging with a fierce ache. Caleb had an apprentice. An _apprentice_. Sure, her plea before he'd left for the war was years passed and they had both grown out of the Jedi myth-tradition, but a little bit of Raen was still that ten-year-old waving frantically at the departing ship and hoping that in just a few years he'd be back and he would be a Knight and…

"Well maybe they've been sending you better hunters than I've been outrunning," Raen made herself comment, shoving that piece of resentment down. "That or mine are just waiting for a good opening to hit me, but I dare them to try."

"Sure, with a training lightsaber," Caleb teased, and Raen couldn't help a smile to see him smirking at her faintly. "Come on, fifteen years and you're still using that old thing?"

"You're using the same lightsaber you made as an apprentice," Raen countered.

"Weak," Caleb retorted, grin spreading. "Mine's full power, thanks."

"Well, give us a couple hours and I'll show you why I haven't," Raen sighed. The train made a long turn, and briefly the spires of the Jedi Temple flickered into view as she stood from her side of the door. "Coming up on our exit; I could use a hand getting these crates ready."

"If you give me a hand to them, I'll gladly help," Caleb answered, extending a hand to her. Raen took it and pulled Caleb to his feet – which put him head and shoulders above her.

"Never going to get used to you being so damn tall," Raen muttered, but Caleb still heard and laughed – the same laugh when they'd been kids. She guided him to the corner where she'd left the crates, and switched on one crate's built-in lifts before pushing it under his hands. "You can roughly track me if I move, right?"

"Roughly is putting it lightly, but yeah," Caleb confirmed. "Just tell me when to jump and I'll be right with you."

"Well don't move yet," Raen warned him with a smirk as she readied the second crate for herself. As she pushed towards the open door, she heard Caleb shuffle slightly, then come up alongside with his crate. Not bad; maybe he was getting the hang of the Force sight thing she'd read about once. She looked out at the passing superscrapers and just managed to count out to the next large gap, with another view of the Temple. "Jump, now!"

Raen shoved her crate forward and launched after it. The Force flooded her again, and she couldn't help an exhilarated whoop as she plummeted. She more sensed than heard Caleb's surprised panic as they hurtled down, down, _down_. Raen started angling herself towards their landing spot, and molded the Force to start slowing down. The Force-enhanced drag and thrust guided her smoothly over the railing on the edges of sector 1313, and Raen made sure the crate was still secure before turning to make sure Caleb was behind her after she'd recovered from her landing. He was just barely managing, kicking and flailing even as he edged closer to the railing. Raen flung a Force hold around him and his crate, reeling them in as best she could to make sure he didn't miss.

"Almost, almost," she panted as she guided them in. The crate landed first, scraping slightly before it floated onto its repulsor coil, and Raen yelped as Caleb plowed into her, sending them sprawling on the floor of the platform.

"…we're not dead?" Caleb groaned after rolling off her chest onto his back. Raen could only respond with a moan; that was going to leave a hefty bruise come the morning. She just managed to shift the final note of her moan into a laugh.

"Didn't trust me, did you?" Raen ground out before she sat up, rubbing her chest a little. "Shows what fifteen years doing nothing but scrounge and try to keep up training on my own does…"

"Never said I didn't trust you," Caleb answered, propping himself up on his elbows with a sigh. "That's a new exit."

"Well I can't go all the way to the Temple anymore, can I?" Raen pointed out, but clapped a hand to his shoulder. "Come on, time to get up. We got a good lead on those Inquisitors – that's what you called them, right? – so they shouldn't catch up if we keep moving."

"Sure, if I'm not sore from that leap," Caleb groaned, but he was smirking as they both got to their feet. Raen guided him back to the crates and got him set up with his crate again before taking up hers.

They didn't talk much as they headed into 1313; Raen made sure her blaster was unholstered and on top of her crate for easy reach in case of trouble, and a glance back at Caleb showed he had the same idea. She heard him speaking quietly into a comlink but let him. He was probably talking to whomever his friends were, most likely the Lasat and the Twi'lek from where the raid happened. Raen wouldn't have minded giving Caleb the coordinates to their final destination, but she couldn't know that his team's channel was secured against the Empire. They could meet halfway, though, she was sure.

Raen sensed the Black Sun checkpoint before seeing it, and she heard Caleb going for his blaster as the muscle started stepping out.

"Easy," Raen muttered over her shoulder to him. "Don't shoot them or we're both in trouble."

"You say that when they've got us surrounded?" Caleb asked, voice tight.

"Less _surrounded_ and more _inspectin'_ ," the Twi'leki leader noted with a harsh smile as he stepped out towards them. "Raen, gel, you didn't say you were bringin' a friend along this run."

"The convoy had more coverage than expected, Ty'rova," Raen replied, though Caleb's tension still rattled her nerves. "You take your cut as usual and let me take the rest through."

"Mm, I'm more tempted ta take half _and_ yeh friend," Ty'rova drawled as he strolled closer. Raen couldn't help a scowl as he flashed another smile, even though it was all sharp teeth. "But we still got a nice haul from that last pull, so I'll letcha off the hook, _this_ time. Business as usual nex' time, luv."

"You're all generosity, Ty," Raen deadpanned, which, despite his smile, made Ty'rova's headtails shiver with disdain. "I'll make sure to bring plenty next time."

Ty'rova refrained from further comments but waved her through. Raen quick-stepped past him and the rest of the Black Sun goons in his patrol, Caleb right behind her. His disapproval smacked into her back so heavily it might well have been a durasteel wall.

"You let that slime steal what you bring down here?" Caleb asked once Ty'rova's checkpoint was well behind them. "That's just giving criminals like them even _more_ power down here!"

"They already own most of the sector, and if I tried to fight them off they've got enough connections to the Empire I wouldn't be safe anywhere on Coruscant," Raen argued. "Letting Ty take some of what I get means I can keep the other sorry souls near my hole, plus myself, alive a few days longer. Or at least not starving."

"That doesn't stop his kind telling them about you anyway," Caleb pressed, "especially now the ISB has it out on the HoloNet you've got Jedi training."

"Ty knows. Part of the payoff to him includes his silence in return. The rest of his particular crew is totally ignorant. They know I swipe goods but they don't connect my surface raids to what they get from me."

"That still doesn't guarantee your safety, Raen."

"I haven't been _safe_ since a whole legion of clones descended on the Temple," Raen snapped, stopping to turn to Caleb and making _sure_ he felt her frustration. "I wasn't _safe_ for the first five years of my life. I know how to take care of myself, _thanks_ for the confidence."

Caleb stared at her – or as close to staring as a blind man could get – before Raen turned back to pushing her crate. That was when she sensed the faint but amused headshake from him.

"Haven't changed, have I?" Raen asked as her ire cooled, and Caleb chuckled softly.

"Nope, not one bit."

"Good."

It was about ten more minutes until they reached a large square, mostly-deserted except for small stirrings of life that Raen could sense. She sighed internally before disengaging the repulsor coil on her crate, returning it solidly to the floor. Raen glanced over at Caleb and saw his head turning, as if trying to get himself oriented.

"It's okay," she told him before raising her voice a bit. "You don't have to be scared, everyone, he's a friend of mine. Helped bring in today's delivery, come on out."

The first sign of motion was under a pile of scrap metal that hid one of a few warrens in the square, and Raen crouched to meet the glowing yellow eyes peering out at her and Caleb. Raen offered the gaze a smile, gently reaching out a hand and beckoning the owner of the eyes out. The Shistavanen cub edged out slowly, snout first and sniffing at Raen's fingers before pulling himself out, matted brown fur filled with more clumps than she'd last seen and ears flicked nervously toward Caleb.

"Kyrr, wow, you went under a few sewer pipes, didn't you," Raen sighed as she found Kyrr's scruff and hefted him to his feet. He snarled weakly at the yank, but blinked at Caleb warily as the Shistavanen settled, just a little taller than Raen.

"Practice scouting," the young wolfman grunted out before pointing to Caleb. "Who?"

"Old friend," Caleb replied, but he was already turning as more kids appeared. Raen felt the smack of the Force in a scant few of them – too weak to really train – but still enough individuals to make Caleb wary. "Raen, how many of them are there?"

"Last count, just shy of twenty-five," Raen sighed. "War orphans, or their folks were taken by the Empire. Technically they're manual labor, but since Black Sun holds the power installations they're stuck down here."

"Bring food?" Kyrr asked, and Raen led him over to the crates, prying them hoping to start handing out Imperial military rations. Caleb helped, of course, but Raen felt the Force warm around him as he ducked to the littlest of Raen's neighbors, asking their names. Raen couldn't help smiling at that; that was Caleb through and through. As the kids got a good supply of the rations, many settled against the walls of the square to have their first portions of the day, while others vanished back to their own hideouts. Kyrr closed one of the crates and shoved it over to his den, clambering atop it before eating.

"Kyrr's got the rest of the stock," Raen told Caleb as she closed up the second crate. "He'll keep the rest of the handouts fair. The rest are mine. Want to call down your friends?"

"Yeah…yeah, sure," Caleb replied, invisible gaze still panning over the kids. "So…the raids…"

"Feeding them," Raen explained. "Kyrr's something of my second; he was the first one that found my hole, don't ask me how. He brought more until they started coming themselves."

"Some of them are Force-sensitive."

"Not really enough to train up in terms of strength. They know enough to stay hidden, which is more important for now. You want the coordinates for your friends or not?"

Caleb refocused and nodded, and after Raen told him the coordinates she moved off near Kyrr's perch to let him contact his team in peace. Kyrr looked up from his meal to give her a nod, then swipe his muzzle clean as he set aside the ration pack.

"He Jedi?" Kyrr asked in a low growl. "If old friend?"

"Yeah," Raen sighed. "I knew him when we were both Jedi. He went off to fight in the war, so I didn't know he'd survived."

"He get you out of Treteen-teen?"

"Don't know. He's got friends offworld, but I can't leave you guys."

"Cubs be fine; you teach survival," Kyrr pointed out. "Me, go with you. Train Jedi."

"Kyrr, you're not Force-sensitive," Raen argued, but he waved a clawed forepaw at her in dismissal.

"No need Force to follow Jedi way," Kyrr insisted. "Am already good tracker, good scout. Want _fight_."

"Kyrr, you're how old?"

Kyrr's fangs bared in a snarl, but Raen wasn't intimidated. They both knew he was only around thirteen Standard years – Shistavanens weren't full-grown until at least seventeen or eighteen – but he had undergone a coming-of-age ritual before his parents had been enslaved by the Empire. Kyrr considered himself an adult, but Raen knew better than hurling unprepared kids into battle. All she had to do was look at Caleb to see how that worked out in the end.

"They _takes_ my clan," he snarled, Basic starting to fade as his fur bristled and his ears folded back against his head. "They _kills_ Jedi. Must _fight_ back, no hide like cubs! You Jedi, he Jedi, pack! Want hunt!"

"Kyrr, that's enough!" Raen barked. "I never finished my Jedi training, neither did he, and you're a _teenager_. If I leave, you're staying _here_. You think you want to be in a pack with me, you already _have_ one! The other kids are going to need you if I go, and if you leave, most of them will starve. Do you _want_ that to happen?!"

Kyrr was arching up, ready to fight for some unseen reason, but Raen felt a hand drop onto her shoulder, pulling her out of Kyrr's biting range. Caleb put himself between them, blind gaze locked firmly to Kyrr.

"Kyrr, right?" Caleb intervened, exuding calm through the Force even though Kyrr's rage was still spiked. "Couldn't help overhearing. Your parents were enslaved?"

Kyrr's only active response was a fresh snarl.

"I'll take it as a yes," Caleb continued. "Look, Raen's right. You're young. I get you want to get them back, or get revenge on the Empire for taking them. But if you leave with us to fight the Empire, these kids? They won't have any supplies to keep them going. They might make it a few weeks, but they won't have any food.

"If Raen leaves, this…this pack of orphans is going to need _you_. You'd be the leader in her absence. You won't be on a full battlefield, but poking the Empire with a stick and knowing how to go to ground is just as important. Okay?"

Raen sensed the threads of connection through the Force weaving from Caleb to Kyrr, and the wolfman teen calmed slowly, fur smoothing but his ears still flattened in displeasure. Eventually, Kyrr nodded, and Raen managed an exhale as Caleb took her shoulder again and shoved her well away from Kyrr.

"I see you're still as good at making friends as ever," Caleb quipped as they returned to Raen's crate of supplies. "You said he found you? Sure he's not sensitive?"

"Very sure," Raen confirmed. "I even checked myself after he pestered me about it for at least two months. Whatever instincts he has, they're normal for a Shistavanen."

"Still, I might put in a word for him," Caleb thought aloud.

Raen couldn't help a smile. He might not accept it, but Caleb was still very much the same as he'd ever been. Of that, she had no doubt.


	6. Arc 1: Part 6

Hera wished it didn't take her and Zeb over an hour to get to Kanan's coordinates; Coruscant was confusing enough without even going below the surface levels of the city planet. Her _lekku_ kept shivering with her nervousness when they got to sector 1313.

"Thirteen-thirteen has a terrible reputation," Senator Organa had told her when she'd let him know Kanan had gotten back in touch after he had vanished on a high-speed cargo train. "Black Sun holds most of the area, so go in armed and unaffiliated. Find your friends and get them out of there as quickly as possible."

That had been Hera's intent as soon as she had watched Kanan cling to that train, and seeing the entrance to 1313 only hardened her resolve.

"Now _this_ looks like my kinda place," Zeb noted as they unloaded from the larger, unmarked speeder that was their operating transport while on Coruscant. "All we need's a decent bar and Kanan'll never want to leave."

"A few years ago, maybe," Hera answered, "but this time we've got a job. Best go get it done."

She ignored Zeb's grumble and kept a hand on her blaster as she led the way through the twisting streets and alleys. As deep down as 1313 was, there was very little natural light for Hera to see by. Maybe one of the few good things Black Sun had done here was ensure the streetlights were working properly, even if more than one had burned out and hadn't been replaced. Hera heard Zeb unsling his bo-rifle warily when they passed more than one Black Sun patrol, though they weren't harassed as Hera double-checked her notes and followed what little sense of direction she had to the coordinates.

The coordinates were at a large square, somewhat cramped with refuse but otherwise clean and open. Hera had no trouble finding Kanan, leaning casually against an Imperial supply crate near the center; it wasn't even surprising to see a stocky woman about Hera's age sitting on the crate just over Kanan's shoulder, one leg hanging off the crate's edge. The woman's clothes – a green scarf that had hidden her face, off-grey jacket and white shirt with bronze-colored accents – showed she was the same hooded blur that struck the convoy. What startled Hera only a little was how much like a knife this woman – Raen Kariya, if she remembered the name right – was. Her blue eyes, about two shades lighter than Kanan's, were the razor-point piercing right into anything she looked at, and the rest of her body was the blade, all edge and metal. From Kanan's descriptions, Hera hated to admit that her initial expectations were entirely off the mark.

The truly shocking thing was how many _kids_ were surrounding them, clumped along the sides of the square. A lot of them were younger than Ezra, and dressed in little more than rags. Most of them jumped when they looked up and saw the two strangers, and likely more because of Zeb than Hera. Close to them a warning growl filled Hera's ears, and she glanced out of the corner of her eye to see a brown-furred Shistavanen hunched on another Imperial crate, yellow eyes narrowed and teeth bared in warning.

"Down, Kyrr, these ones are friends," Raen called as she slid off the crate. Kanan's head had already turned to them, and a grin was spreading over his face as he headed for Hera and Zeb. Hera decided to ignore Kyrr and jogged for Kanan, embracing him tightly around the shoulders before hitting him in the back with a fist.

"Don't you _ever_ do that to me again," Hera insisted only loudly enough for Kanan to hear, but he chuckled and squeezed her reassuringly.

"I'm okay, Hera, promise," Kanan murmured before stealing a kiss to her temple. He turned her loose before stepping back and turn slightly towards Raen. "Raen, these are the crew I brought with me, Hera Syndulla and Zeb Orrelios. Guys, this is Raen."

"It's nice to meet you; Kanan's told us a lot about you over the past few weeks, once we heard what was going on with the convoy raids," Hera greeted her, even offering her hand to shake. Raen instead leaned away slightly, knife-point eyes flickering into Hera's hand uncertainly. _Right, this one is easily twice as suspicious as Ezra at the start._ Hera lowered her hand before adding, "You're not the only person on Coruscant who wants to see the Empire brought down."

"True, I'm certain," Raen answered, voice low but as sharp as the rest of her frame. "But there's at least ten times that number who'd like to see folks like us ground under the Empire's heel. A lot of it is just about surviving."

Hera noticed Kanan shift a little uncomfortably at that; she decided not bringing it up was a good idea.

"Look, we came all this way for more'n just a chat," Zeb complained. "It's real simple."

"I'll bet it is, but here isn't the place for it," Raen interrupted him and wasn't even fazed by Zeb's startled snarl. "Follow me. We'll talk more once we get somewhere safe."

She turned to activate the crate's repulsor coil and began pushing it off down another alley. Hera sighed and took Kanan's hand to squeeze before resting his hold on her shoulder.

"So, she's…interesting," Zeb began as they followed after Raen. "Thought she'd be more like you, Kanan."

"More like me how, Zeb?" Kanan asked. "If you mean wrung out and trampled by the past, yeah, we're alike. Well, sort of."

"Lot nastier, though."

"She's not being nasty, just suspicious."

"She _does_ know why we're looking for her, right?" Hera asked. "I don't want this whole thing blowing up in our faces and ending up in Imperial custody."

"Yes and no," Kanan replied. "I told her we're with a larger rebellion and figured she would be interested in having additional support. As far as I heard and felt, there's at least one big thing she'll want done first."

"What?!" Zeb groaned. "You mean we gotta stay here _longer_?!"

"It's Coruscant," Raen called back at Zeb's outburst; Hera hoped she hadn't heard the rest of their conversation. "Here I was thinking a bunch of Rimmers would _want_ to see more of the capital, especially when they're so nicely set up on the surface!"

"…and I told her our covers," Kanan admitted sheepishly. Hera was on the verge of strangling him before Kanan babbled out, "She said they might be useful, gets us places she can't, so that's why I figure she has something in mind."

"…I am _still_ going to kill you," Hera growled.

"But you love me anyway."

 _Damn this man but I do._

They fell quiet for the rest of the walk, eventually following Raen off the well-lit alleys and into passages that were nearly pitch black. Zeb moved ahead to spot – one perk of having a Lasat around, for the night vision – but Raen called out warnings as they moved deeper. Hera couldn't help reaching up to hold onto Kanan's fingers more than once, and was rewarded with a reassuring squeeze from his grip. _Okay, Hera, calm down, we can't have much further to go…_

"Here we are, home sweet home," Raen announced as some dim lighting appeared up ahead. Hera peered around Zeb as best she could and could only stare to find a single glowing streetlight shining down over a massive boulder – actual _rock_ – that was sitting in front of what had to be the entrance to Raen's hideout.

"Ya call this _home_?!" Zeb complained. "There isn't anything here, other'n that giant rock in front of us…"

"Rock?" Kanan asked in surprise. "What _kind_ of rock?"

"Big," Hera replied. "Well beyond anything any of us could lift."

"I thought you said your friends knew you, Kay," Raen prodded as she stepped away from her crate to square herself in front of the boulder. "Not telling them about the old days, what a shame."

"Wait a minute, Raen – "

"I need to focus, so shut up."

Hera looked up at Kanan uncertainly, but his attention stayed fixed to Raen. Hera glanced back to Raen and couldn't help starting back slightly. Raen's hand was outstretched, head bent slightly, but slowly, slowly, the rock began to rise: one meter, then two, then half of another. Hera dimly heard Kanan murmur "I don't kriffin' believe it."

"Someone get my crate and the rest of you get inside," Raen growled. "I can only hold it up this high for so long…"

"On it!" Zeb affirmed, darting for the crate and racing under the boulder. Hera made sure Kanan had a tight hold before following suit after the Lasat, into a darkened chamber beyond not just the first boulder, but a second one on the other side of the wall. Raen grunted as she paced after them, ducking under the first boulder before skipping out of the way of the second before both dropped with a thundering crash. All light from outside cut, and for a few beats Hera realized how Kanan had to feel; a similar darkness was going to hold him for the rest of his life.

"Raen, you did _not_ somehow get one of the heavy training stones down here," Kanan noted in the darkness, "and just lifted it high enough to get us in here."

"Two, and I did," Raen replied before a flare of gold light, paired with the snap-hiss of a lightsaber, lit the area, revealing Raen smirking faintly. "Why do you think there's a hole in that wall?"

"Now what?" Hera asked uncertainly, squinting as her eyes adjusted to the new light source. "We can't be there yet."

"Smart," Raen affirmed. "This way."

"Least it doesn't smell like a sewer," Zeb grumbled as they fell in behind Raen, descending into a warren of tunnels.

"Abandoned for at least half a century," Raen explained. "One of the perks of places like Coruscant and Nar Shaddaa, all the new places demand their own infrastructure, and that replaces the old stuff without actually removing it."

"Giving you a set of bolt-holes that the Empire can't map," Hera supposed. "Not a bad way to throw them off your trail."

"Well, it's what I do best," Raen agreed. In the dim light Hera thought she saw the tiniest of appreciative smiles tugging at her mouth. _She likes being valued and supported. No wonder she latched onto Kanan._

They didn't talk much as they traversed the tunnels, only stopping once at a large power hub so Raen could pull a lever that had been grafted onto the generator. Down another set of tunnels in near-darkness, and after descending a ladder (handling the supply crate very well, all things considered) they stopped at a closed bulkhead door.

"And here we are, the den proper," Raen announced before ducking to the control panel. A few keystrokes soon got the door open, and Hera winced at the clear white light that shone out as Raen slid in. "Come on in, the crate can go with the others, let me see if I can get something decent to drink…"

"Here we go, watch the door, step here," Hera guided Kanan as she walked in after Raen. As her eyes adapted yet again, Hera had to stop and take it all in. Raen's hideout wasn't a cramped space stuffed near to bursting with supplies; it was a massive domed structure, the transparisteel ceiling intact and glowing with both installed lighting and the dim yellow lights of 1313 just beyond. Under the dome was a respectably-sized home-like space, split into two levels and nothing out of place. In fact, it reminded Hera very much of the _Ghost_ , the way everything seemed to be arranged.

Hera made sure to do her best to describe the space to Kanan: the dome, the living space and functional cooking area on their level while below seemed to be storage, maintenance, and training. She led Kanan towards the living space and got him sitting down on a sofa that had definitely been reclaimed more than once, while Raen rummaged in the preservation unit.

"This is impressive; I'm surprised nothing else was hiding out in here," Hera commented after Raen pulled out a bottle of what Hera hoped was Gizer blue ale and found containers resembling cups.

"Maybe a hundred years ago this place was nice enough, but there were more than a few critters when I found it," Raen replied. "Had to do a lot of pest control and rewiring to jack into the power system before I could even start thinking about getting the place habitable."

"I guess you had the time to do it," Hera added as gingerly as she could. Her only answer was a nod before Zeb came bounding up from where he'd dropped off the crate.

"Kanan, c'mon, there's somethin' you…agh, yanno," Zeb stammered when he remembered Kanan couldn't actually see anything of interest. "Down below."

"What, I don't get to explain it first, be a host?" Raen asked, almost sounding offended. "This's one of my last Gizer bottles, come on, relax. Plus I gave you guys a good chase."

"That she did," Kanan agreed, and Hera heard Raen snicker before the cap on the bottle popped off of its own accord. Zeb shrugged and sat down with them while Raen poured the Gizer, then passed the cups around.

"So, we're here," Hera noted after they'd all taken a drink; the Gizer was stronger than she'd been braced for. "What is it you wanted?"

"You first," Raen answered, cradling her Gizer as she leaned against a wall. "You're the bunch that wanted to hunt me down without killing me."

"I told you some of it, Raen," Kanan explained. "We're working with a rebel group, and when you jumped onto the HoloNet you got up into their recruitment lists. Especially with your training."

"Such as it is," Raen argued. "If I join up with you, that makes the target on my back a little bigger than I'm comfortable with."

"And what about your regular skills?" Kanan pressed on, as if Raen hadn't spoken. "You can get anywhere you want and just about get your hands on anything. What makes hiding out down here any better than fighting back out there?"

"I hid because that's all I could do, Kay," Raen stated, but Hera heard heat in Raen's voice. "Just like all you could do was run away. I was a kid when the Jedi died, and I'm not a Jedi, not anymore."

"Then why've you got a bunch of Jedi stuff downstairs?" Zeb asked with a smirk.

Hera stared at Raen before getting up and heading down before Raen could stop her, Kanan close with her as she descended. Under the balcony where they had been sitting stood a haphazard display case, stacked with holocrons and datatapes. No wonder Zeb had wanted Kanan to know these were here!

"…how many?" Kanan asked, even as he reached out one hand towards the case though none of the holocrons responded.

"A-at least ten holocrons, maybe more," Hera tried to count, "and the datatapes – "

"Twelve holocrons, thirty datatapes," Raen called down with a sigh, appearing at the railing and still cradling her drink. "Everything I've been able to grab for the past three years. Hence these Inquisitors on my tail."

"So why recover them if you're not a Jedi?" Kanan asked her, and Hera had a feeling Kanan was about to corner her. "Why keep training your abilities if you aren't planning to fight?"

"…I never said I wasn't," Raen answered after a long, long pause. "But unlike you, I don't have the training. Not thorough training, anyway."

"Raen," Hera pressed, "if you come with us, Kanan could help you finish your training. He already has an apprentice, and we can use all the help we can, especially if more Inquisitors come out of whatever pit they call home."

"At what cost?" Raen insisted. "No. If you want me so badly, I need favors. I need to _know_ I can count on you."

"What, I don't count anymore?" Kanan asked with a frown.

"You ran, didn't you?"

 _There's something more here_ , Hera realized as Kanan tensed beside her. Of course, it was his prerogative to not tell her everything about his past, but Kanan had once done everything he could to get away from that past. _It's not going to end well, that's for sure_.

"All right, Raen, let's talk this out," Hera stepped in. "What do you need? Let's see what we can do for you, and in return, at least consider joining us. Coruscant won't be a safe hiding spot for you forever."

"Like that wasn't obvious," Raen noted. But she turned away briefly, and when she reappeared, Raen swung herself over the railing, landing lightly enough Hera suspected she had used the Force. "You and your Lasat friend can do a favor for my contact, and with your covers I'm sure Kay can assist with that, too. The favor for me requires something extra."

"Raen, don't ask me this," Kanan murmured. "Don't."

"You don't even know what I'm asking," Raen retorted darkly. "The second thing, Kay and I go into the Jedi Temple. There's some unfinished business I need to handle, Jedi things."

"What?!" Hera sputtered. _Not good, not good!_ "How necessary is this raid?"

"Extremely," Raen insisted. "Kay probably blabbed I only have a training 'saber. Nice for a light show, but doesn't handle things as well as the real deal. The datatapes I have don't include directions on lightsaber construction, the holocrons won't let me access those schematics, and the Temple is the only place I know to get the right quality of crystal without having to sell my training materials. Either we go in and I get what I need, or you can forget my support – or, for that matter, my inside man."

Hera internally winced. Whoever Raen's contact was, he could give them insights Phoenix Squadron could exploit, not to mention pass on to the rest of the Rebellion. Plus, having an additional Jedi – or Jedi-trained individual, at least – would be incredibly valuable as well, especially if the Empire wasn't actively hunting her like Kanan and Ezra were being hunted. Sacrificing those in the face of anything else could drag on the war longer than it was already looking to be.

"You're talking as if I want to go back in there, Raen," Kanan argued. "I _don't_. It's going to be a death trap for the both of us."

"It's been fifteen, sixteen years since the clones marched," Raen answered briskly. "The place isn't a war zone anymore. It's a tomb. A few ghosts don't worry me."

"It's not ghosts that concern me."

"Leave tracking any patrols to my insider. Trust is a two-way street. I've trusted you lot with my hideout's location, and you're trusting me not to hand you all in. You want my allegiance; you have to give me reasons to trust you that far."

Raen turned to focus on Hera, and Hera stiffened warily as those knife-point eyes buried under her skin. Hera knew better than to consider Raen a threat, but having her support would be better than just leaving her. And…maybe Kanan could help her. Somehow.

"Do we have a deal?" Raen asked, the fire cooled enough to do business.

 _It's just another job_ , Hera had to remind herself, _and the payoff had better be worth it_.

"We do. Give us the details."


	7. Arc 2: Part 7

**_Coruscant, Imperial Special Forces Training Center – One week later_**

" _They'll be coming in for a reconnoiter; considering their cover ranks, you'll probably get to give them a decent brief_ ," Raen's voice scratched quietly in his ear. He was just grateful his helmet hid the anxiety clawing around his gut. " _Best of all, they should have a good plan for covering you and the rest in getting out of there._ "

"Not sure if that comforts me or worries me more," he murmured. Outwardly, the other officers and cadets he passed gave nods to the training commander; inwardly, though, Commander Cody wanted nothing more than to get out of the armor, out of the academy, and _run_. So far, he'd had to keep that desire clamped down, but since Raen had called him to say she had friends on-world that might could help it was all Cody could do not to desert and hang the consequences.

After Order 66, after the Empire's rise, Cody had more often than not wished he was dead. The chip in his head had forced him to fire on his friend, his general, and once he was himself again Cody hated finding the reports that General Kenobi was presumed dead – maybe not by Cody's actions, but probably close enough. The tide of change had decommissioned most of his clone brothers – Rex, Wolffe, and Gregor had simply vanished, and Cody envied them – but somehow Cody had been kept on. His brass in the new chain of command put him in charge of running the SO cadets, and put a handful of nominally-retired clone commandos under him to train the new kids. The work had kept him busy enough to forget the regret and the guilt, save a couple of patrols that had ended up pulling his course hard off the road.

A year ago he'd been taking a group of cadets on a training op through the sector outside the Jedi Temple. The place was off-limits to everyone except those on the Emperor's allowance, but Cody had plotted the course to skirt the very edges of that restricted space. All told, the op had been going smoothly until a ventilation grate burst open from the restricted side of that invisible boundary. The blur had charged through them with a lightsaber and panicked most of the group, and Cody had immediately retasked the cadets to getting back to the academy while he tracked down the blur. Of course it'd disappeared as soon as he'd started losing speed, but the next few weeks Cody had managed to secure permission to walk a solo patrol to find the source.

It had taken him three months before she found him. A lone Jedi survivor, but when Cody had run the mental math she couldn't have been older than thirteen when the order landed. But there she had been, a yellow lightsaber at his throat and demanding to know if he wanted her dead.

 _No,_ he had told her, _but maybe I can help you_.

Since then Cody had been a secret traitor to the Empire, to the force that had destroyed everything he had believed in. He couldn't directly send supplies to Raen, but he gave her the convoy schedules so she knew where and when to raid them for supplies. He warned her when the first Inquisitor he had ever seen arrived to hunt her – and when the other two arrived two months after the first had failed to find her alone. He wouldn't be the reason another Jedi died. He owed Obi-Wan that much.

" _Consider it repaying you for what you've been doing_ ," Raen told him as Cody reached his office, and relative safety from the people outside and his thoughts inside. " _They should be at the center this afternoon; a delegation from Alderaan, three individuals._ "

Cody was already bringing up the schedule and saw the notice: Princess Leia Organa, soon her father's replacement in the Senate, along with a Lasat bodyguard and one Ambassador Kifeoth for a tour of the training facility at fourteen hundred.

"I'm playing tour guide to a pair of diplomats?"

" _Kifeoth's your contact,_ " Raen continued. " _He'll confirm when you meet. His phrase is 'a force of peacekeepers may be better suited to my people's needs'._ "

Cody immediately committed the phrase to memory, then clicked into the channel twice. Raen returned the click before the channel closed, and Cody pried off his helmet with a sigh. Sure, living a double life was taxing, but Cody preferred it to the blind servitude his new peers offered the Empire. Not a single independent thought beyond expansion and oppression among them. This way he could make up for his mistakes, for the things he had been forced to do.

The desk job was cozy enough, especially given his age. Cody was just glad that his hair wasn't all gone to gray yet, though white at his temples reminded him of more than one thing he couldn't control about his life. He did keep up with physical training, still in top physical condition for a semi-retired clone commander, and the bi-weekly medical exams, while a little excessive, made sure the Empire knew he was still useful – for the time being. The commandos, though, were another story.

Apart from the core trainers that the Empire provided his branch of the academy, five formerly-Republic commandos had been 'donated' from the reformed 501st to serve as instructors based on their specialties. During the GAR days, SO and regular infantry barely mixed, so it was a very instructional day for Cody when he met his new staff: three members of the former Delta Squad, and two members of the former Omega Squad. He learned right away that they despised the Empire, despised being relegated to training, and by ultimate extension despised _him_. Between the five, the two former squad leaders were at least forced to despise him the least, and Cody liked to imagine that Boss and Niner – Delta and Omega's leaders, respectively – got on decently well with him. Delta's tech man, Fixer, was a closed book and entirely unreadable in the few times Cody had seen him. The remaining two, their squads' demolitions experts, were a definite problem though it wasn't an obvious one to someone who didn't know clones. When Cody had initially introduced himself to the two, he knew right off they'd lost someone close. When he'd tried asking for details Scorch had filled Cody's ears with blistering invectives for a good ten minutes and Darman, though quieter, had given Cody such a murderous look that Niner had to keep Darman from chasing after Cody while their supposed CO made a break for his life. Neither Boss nor Niner had offered explanations for the behavior in those initial meetings right away, and Cody even surprised himself by not referring the altercations up the chain. No one else in the Imperial command structure would understand what was going on with them – which was why Cody wanted to get all five of them out and on their way to somewhere safe. Commandos always had a backup plan, even if it took nearly sixteen years to complete.

It had been three weeks ago when Niner and, surprisingly, Fixer had caught Cody in the commissary at the end of another boring day, asking to speak to him in private. Instead of his office, Cody took them directly to his quarters, even finding some _tihaar_ that Raen had somehow managed to smuggle to his desk months ago. The strong Mandalorian liquor was enough, Cody felt, to start breaking the ice, particularly with Niner as the two began to explain what had happened to their brothers, in better detail than any mission report Cody tried searching for from the few GAR records he had access to.

Fixer went first, voice quiet but somehow still emotional. Delta had been sent to Kashyyyk at the end of the war, under the command of Generals Yoda and Etain Tur-Mukan with Etain as their direct Jedi liaison. Although the squad had completed their mission of rescuing the Wookiee leader Tarfful, as Delta were approaching their rendezvous their fourth man, Sev, was captured by Trandoshan slavers working for the Seps. Scorch and Sev had been batch-brothers, so Sev's capture was a personal matter to Scorch, one that needed to be followed up immediately in his eyes. Worse, rather than getting the order to go after him, Delta had been ordered to regroup with Etain and the Wookiees – leaving Sev behind to an unknown fate.

"He blamed Boss and me for the longest time," Fixer had said in conclusion, drawn gaze uneasy at revealing such personal information. "It's been a long time, and Sev might be dead, but Scorch refuses to give up hope. He doesn't like talking about it because he's decided since the Empire replaced the Republic and killed the Jedi, they're the next party at fault for not letting us recover Sev."

Niner's explanation earned Darman Cody's everlasting sympathies. Darman had fallen in love with Etain over the course of the war, and she with him, to the point that Etain had been ready to leave the Jedi. They even had a _kid_ , a boy that had been adopted by Darman's training sergeant to keep him safe from the Jedi. After Etain had come back from Kashyyyk and retired from the Jedi, Order 66 had gone out.

"Don't know about you infantry guys, but we never had the issue of being made to go through with it," Niner had added, not without sympathy but still leaving a bitter taste in Cody's mouth. "Otherwise it wouldn't have ended well for her anyway."

Omega and a batch of independent ARCs had been coordinating a mass desertion, with Etain trying to meet Niner and Darman to get to their vessel. A checkpoint had separated them, and Etain had been right behind a small group trying to get through. That small group had drawn their lightsabers, to cut through the soldiers manning the checkpoint. Etain had been caught in the crossfire, and struck down by a Jedi lightsaber while trying to protect the clones that would have killed her if she'd pulled the same stunt. Darman had watched the whole thing, Niner, too, before they had been caught and thrown back into the Imperial Army.

"His son has been without Dar his whole life," Niner had finished. "He might not say it, but I know he'd want nothing more than to see his _ad'ika_ again. Has to."

Cody had thanked them, had bid them farewell, and in the privacy following spent the night discovering what a bender was. It wasn't just the scars of the sudden end to the war had left them; it was the immediacy of those unseen injuries. Cody had been forced to turn on his best friend, but Scorch had lost his brother, Darman his lover _and_ son. The _tihaar_ had dulled the pain but not the grief, and Cody had spent the next day with a raging headache and unable to listen to anything louder than a whisper without reeling behind his helmet. After the hangover was gone had been when he'd told Raen he needed to get those five out.

"And now they might just get a chance," Cody murmured as he confirmed the tour. If Kifeoth was part of Raen's ticket to getting those men out, Cody wasn't going to pass it up.

–

Meeting with Senate representatives and foreign ambassadors wasn't usually on Cody's to-do list, but it was one of the few things that meant he wasn't in armor. At thirteen-fifty-nine Cody was out at the academy's speeder pad, without a guard detail, crisply dressed in the dark gray of the Imperial Army and commander's rank tabs firmly pinned to his breast. He eschewed the cap since he preferred a helmet anyway and had done everything in his power to keep his uniform pants straight when tucked into his boots. Of course he wore his armor bodysuit underneath, just in case.

He only needed to wait an additional five minutes before the Senatorial speeder appeared in the skylanes and began its descent towards him. Cody gave his jacket one last tug before pulling himself into his at-ease stance. _This is it._

The speeder landed without issue and opened for the passengers to disembark, with the young princess first, escorting a man that towered over her easily and had his eyes hidden behind a darkened visor, and closed after the princess' bodyguard, a Lasat, hopped off the ramp, drawn up above the two humans. Cody exhaled slowly before approaching them with an ease that he absolutely did not feel.

"Your highness, ambassador, it's an honor to welcome you to the Empire's Special Operations Training Center," Cody greeted them, inclining his head briefly. "I'm Commander Cody; I'll be escorting you through the academy."

"A pleasure to meet you, commander," the princess replied; although she was young, Cody couldn't help but be reminded of Padme Amidala. Padme had been a force of personality that this new senator had undoubtedly studied and could channel all too easily. "I was told that this training center was one of the few places in the military that still makes use of Clone War veterans; part of my interest in this inspection was to determine these brave soldiers are being treated well."

Cody heard the soft crack of a knuckle and saw the ambassador clenching a fist. _That doesn't bode well if this guy doesn't like clones. Must be Raen's man. Just great._

"Well, your highness, rest assured that's the case; I'm one of those few still under the Empire's watch," Cody told her, though she could have undoubtedly guessed. "I'm sure you'd like to see for yourself."

"Both myself and Ambassador Kifeoth would appreciate that, thank you."

Cody nodded, giving a glance to Kifeoth and the Lasat before leading them inside. _Kifeoth has strong opinions on clones and/or the war. Figures, Raen always draws in hard cases like me and those Inquisitors. Let's hope he gives me that damn confirm phrase or we're getting nowhere fast._

Cody didn't focus too much on actually giving the tour, since he was cleared to show off some of the practice floors and one of the med clinics and only needed to give a general explanation of each area. It did give him an opportunity to study the civilians. The princess, Leia, reminded him in every good way about the former Senator from Naboo: always concerned and open-hearted, but she could get feisty and fierce if she couldn't have her way. Cody could respect the Lasat – there were few of them to begin with – but suspected he had a much deeper role than a mere bodyguard; maybe a former military man, even. But Kifeoth made Cody very wary; despite the fine green coat and well-shined boots, Cody could tell Kifeoth was no diplomat by trade. He walked a little too gracefully, was a little too lean, to pull off a full-fledged ambassador for the long term. Not to mention, other than his steady grip on Leia's shoulder, Kifeoth hadn't relaxed for a moment since Cody had admitted he was a clone. In Cody's experience and with the benefit of hindsight, he could make two guesses about Kifeoth: one, the man knew very well who Cody was, probably even knew who his general during the war had been; and two, Kifeoth had been in contact with, or maybe even was, a survivor of Order 66. Only someone exposed directly to that day would react in such a small but obvious manner.

The clinic was, obviously, Leia's primary goal, and while she interrogated one of the doctors Cody lingered with Kifeoth.

"What you're doing is all well and good," Kifeoth said quietly, the first words he'd spoken all day and rough with a hint of anger, "but, to be honest…"

 _Say the damn words already, man!_ , Cody thought anxiously.

"…a force of peacekeepers may be better suited to my people's needs," Kifeoth finished, and Cody couldn't help closing his eyes with a relieved sigh. "I'll need to ask for some specifics from my sources."

 _You mean you're going to ask Raen how she got me on her side,_ Cody thought bitterly. _Can't just trust a man on his word these days, apparently._

"If you have any concerns I should be aware of, ambassador, I can take any complaints and escalate them to my superiors," Cody noted, keeping his voice cold. Cody would have sworn Kifeoth smirked at him before the ambassador handed a datapad to him.

"I made a list," Kifeoth answered, and Cody felt the brief impulse to wring his neck. "You don't need to advise your superiors on the matter, you should be able to handle it."

"I'll keep that in mind," Cody muttered, keeping a hold on the datapad and making sure the screen didn't turn on. Leia finished her conversation with the doctor and made her way back to Cody and Kifeoth, though her gaze was more sternly directed to Kifeoth before Cody escorted them out of the clinic.

"Well, commander, this has been a very enlightening trip," Leia said once Cody had gotten them back to the speeder pad. "Perhaps we can communicate in the future, regarding the medical equipment here."

 _Medical equipment? Why'd a senator want to discuss that with me?_ Cody thought briefly, but his brain kicked in. Kifeoth wasn't the only representative Raen had sent; the princess and maybe even the Lasat were all in on it, together. _I just walked a rebel cell right through my command!_

"I'll make sure to leave my information with your father's office, your highness," Cody told her, at once relieved and shaken. Clearly, though, they'd all seen what they needed to; all he could do was sit tight and keep his role in the dark until it was time to move. "If you'd like to discuss those logistics in person, you can almost always find me here."

"I'm sure we'll be in touch," Kifeoth added, and Cody bit back another internal fume. _Not a Jedi, that one. Raen might be_ jare'la _, but she's still got some of the Jedi attitude. Kifeoth just has attitude, period._

Cody watched the trio re-enter the speeder, and felt a sense of impending action as the speeder took off. Instead of leading and designing an operation, Cody suddenly realized, he was about to become the objective of an upcoming op. He and five other clones who would not appreciate being in the dark when the call came to move out.

"Gotta get some more range time in," Cody muttered to himself as he went back inside to get out of the stupid uniform. He had a feeling he was going to need as much prep as he could get in as possible.


	8. Arc 2: Part 8

**_Coruscant – 500 Republica_**

"So, how'd it go?" Raen asked, almost singsong, when Kanan returned to his ambassador suite close to the Senate – Kanan wasn't surprised she was there had he wanted to think about it. The faint scowl he'd been managing to work off came back full force, though he waited until the door hissed shut behind him. Only once it was did he snarl in some frustration before untying the sash closing his coat. "Uh oh, someone didn't like my friend…"

"Yeah, when your _friend_ is the clone that probably tried to kill Master Kenobi," Kanan snapped before throwing sash, then coat, in Raen's direction. Even though he couldn't see her, he still got some satisfaction from hearing her squeak a little at the assault. "And how in hells _did_ you get in here?"

"Ventilation and maintenance tunnels, then some well-placed memory blurring," Raen answered from behind the fabric he'd thrown. "Also Cody checked reports, he thinks it's kinda likely Master Obi-Wan survived – especially since, you know, he sent off that warning message after Order Sixty-Six happened. If that's the case he's keeping a lower profile than you are."

Kanan grumbled anyway and would have managed to get somewhere just fine if Raen didn't approach and take his hand. A wave of feeling flowed up his arm – concern, mostly – before Raen tugged him along. Kanan briefly noted that it was away from where he figured the in-suite bar was but Raen pushed him down into a chair before he could ask. He was able to track her outline to another chair across from him, sitting and leaning towards him.

"So, before the full meet and greet again," Raen began, "what'd Cody have to say? He's doing all right, yeah, you guys didn't give him away or anything, right?"

"Didn't talk much, but we saw plenty," Kanan replied; Raen's unease and mild discomfort flared a little when he mentioned seeing. "Lots of people in there, training commanders and cadets alike, not to mention a bunch of general Imperial desk jockeys."

"He mention the others needing coverage out?"

"Wait, it's _more_ than just extracting one guy?"

"Uh, yeah," Raen answered. "Cody's not the only clone there. Some of the very last special operations commandos are in there. I mean, can't guarantee they'll tag along with whomever you guys work with, but Cody was pretty adamant that it's six to go out, not just him."

Kanan would have groaned but he already heard Hera: _Getting those commandos on our side would be ideal, but if we at least give them something to consider it's still an opening_. He'd never met any of the clone commandos with Master Billaba, but what Kanan had heard was enough for him to know that Hera wasn't going to back off from the chance to get those commandos as a resource for the Rebellion.

"Other than that technical detail," Kanan continued, "someone more humanitarian-minded than me right now spent a good bit of time looking over the med clinic he took us to. Anything you wanna share about that?"

"Hey, I don't know anything medical," Raen told him, outline shifting defensively. "Cody and I keep contact to a minimum to keep the Imps from finding our jacked frequency. If he showed it as part of the diplomat tour, there's a reason to it."

Kanan tilted his head towards the door as he sensed Zeb approaching the door, and knew Raen had sensed him, too. It didn't stop her from swinging herself over the back of her chair and ducking warily behind it. Kanan couldn't help shaking his head at first, but then he picked up someone else with Zeb: the princess. A quick scan of the building – zooming out almost like on a holoprojector, just in his head – revealed Hera descending impatiently from the roof landing. That would be everyone.

"Raen, relax," Kanan tried to soothe her, but the door opened too soon. Leia strode in first, all confidence and surety, and Zeb ducked in before the door closed. Kanan got up to spread his hands warningly towards Leia. "Princess, not a good idea to be here right now…"

"Is that so?" Leia asked in that tone that reminded Kanan way too much of Hera. "Why, we're not going to discuss our little informative tour of the training facility?"

"Maybe not without introductions," Kanan suggested before nodding towards the chair Raen was taking cover behind. He couldn't help a smirk before latching a Force hold on Raen's ankle and tugging her off balance enough that she dropped onto the floor, loudly enough for Leia to jump.

" _Fierfek_ , Kay, you _really_ had to do that?!" Raen swore as she got up to her feet, brushing imaginary dust off her sleeves as she got up slowly. "Tell me the junior senator is with you."

"More accurately, he's with me," Leia answered, arms crossed over her chest. "Now you tell me you swept this room for surveillance devices."

"I'm not entirely stupid for being gutter trash," Raen retorted, yet a whiff of acceptance and even respect between Raen and Leia flashed over Kanan's awareness. He was probably going to regret having the two of them meet, but there was nothing to be done about it now. "Waiting on one more, yeah?"

"Hera's incoming," Kanan reported, sensing her heading their way as quickly as she could without being obvious. "Maybe we can actually start figuring out how to get six clones out from that fortress without the Empire catching on."

"I have a few ideas," Leia replied with a smack of cocky confidence not unlike when they had met on Lothal. Kanan still hadn't decided if he liked that confidence or if it was annoying as hells.

"Someone better; I like smackin' bucketheads as much as the next guy, but there's too many of 'em in there for me to take all on my own," Zeb grumbled, though Kanan sensed that Zeb wouldn't mind those sorts of odds. "Not to mention it'll be easy t'get pinned down in there."

"Sorry, I was finishing my aerial sweep, making sure everything was wiped," Hera excused as she breezed inside. "I do have the records you asked for, highness."

"Just Leia, please, captain," Leia replied, and Kanan made sure to offer a smile in what he could roughly approximate was Hera's direction. Even though everyone else's outline was dimmer than Raen's – Leia was maybe five shades dimmer, while Zeb and Hera were difficult to make out – Kanan could basically see them, and from those echoes get a rough outline of the room. He was definitely getting better at this.

"Here, let me," Hera suggested as she headed for the holotable in the sitting area Kanan and Raen had been at before everyone arrived. Raen herself moved closer to the wall, out to the edges, as Hera approached. Kanan wasn't sure why Raen didn't like her, or at least was pricklier with her than others. He sat back down in his chair and watched Hera fiddle with the table. Too bad the Force didn't let him see technological displays.

"This is a scan I took of the training academy, after a few passes and telling a nervous comptroller I was on a security patrol for the senator," Hera explained. "The academy itself covers about four hundred levels, all surface-level and above. The pad you got access to is for academy personnel and other Imperial officials, at level three-seventy-five. Service entrance is down here, level fifty-six, and the public main entrance is at level two-thirty-three."

"But they've got nothing below-surface," Raen pointed out. "With the sector address I can do some spelunking, get an idea of what's down there."

"You haven't done it before?" Leia asked. "What about when you met with the commander?"

"Cody had been tracking me for a few months before I let him find me," Raen clarified. "After we got our little arrangement set up, I decided for his safety to keep distance from the academy. That's why I hit convoys closer to the spaceports, not the academy."

"Preserving your contact and regular operational security," Hera noted with a hint of praise. Kanan hid his smile at Raen's flicker of surprised pride by cradling his chin in his hand. "The belowground access can be our primary entrance point, or even an emergency egress in case we have to go in a hurry."

"What about coming at it from the roof?" Kanan asked, motioning towards where he hoped the hologram was. Zeb reached down to take his wrist and shifted his direction. "Hera can fly us in, we drop and move, then pull out down under."

"Sure, try filing an aerial drop request with a traffic comptroller that's approved," Hera replied. "I would prefer that, too, but in a shuttle we're too high-profile."

"Speeder at the service entrance, then," Kanan amended. "Less visibility, close enough to the belowground we can secure that route before moving on."

"Getting in's all well and good," Raen interrupted, "but getting out's the problem. We're going in as at least a team of three; we're coming out at nine. Assuming everything goes well, yeah, we can get them out through the tunnels; what if nothing goes right?"

"By reputation, Republic commandos are masters of improvisation," Hera said, "and they're not afraid of leaving a bit of wreckage if something gets in their way."

"Sound like my kinda guys," Zeb chuckled darkly. "Too bad Sabine's not here to play."

"So, we get in at the service entrance," Kanan suggested, "pull the clones out, and drop into the tunnels to get out. Quick, clean, and quiet."

"With a complication," Leia sighed. Kanan just _knew_ this wasn't going to go well. "During the tour, I took a chance to speak to one of the medical technicians in a clinic for the academy. Apparently, the clones get a bi-weekly exam that includes some sort of anti-aging medication; it's not enough to reverse their accelerated aging entirely, but it does slow it."

"Explains why Cody felt younger than Rex does," Kanan muttered, shaking his head slowly. "You're saying if we don't get a supply of this stuff, these guys are going to get old again."

"At least looking it, and feeling it sooner," Leia insisted. "Any operation to extract those men will also mean getting some of that supply. And, in the long run, perhaps it could be researched into a full therapy against the aging, and we can provide it to any surviving clones."

Kanan smothered a groan, still shaking his head, but he felt Raen bristle in irritation.

"I can do it," she insisted. "It'll be easy. We get in, I signal Cody and go for the meds while the rest of the team gets the clones out. I follow with a bag of the stuff and rendezvous outside. Quick and easy."

"Fast, direct, and quiet," Hera agreed, though Kanan sensed her watching him. "Any complaints?"

"Splitting up is _not_ smart," Kanan pushed, lifting his head to fix on Raen. "If you go off on your own, it's more likely you're going to get caught, especially if there's Inquisitors after you."

"They won't know I'm there," Raen argued.

"You _say_ that, but you haven't _done_ it."

"Are you saying I can't hold my own against them?"

"No, I'm saying it's dangerous!"

"Force-dammit, Caleb, I am _not_ a child anymore!" Raen snapped, anger and frustration putting spikes in her aura again. "How _dangerous_ have the past fifteen years been, huh, with Jedi on the run and everything going to hells?! I am sick and _tired_ of hearing someone complain then not do _anything_. If you're not going to help, then I'll damn well do it all myself, just like always!"

Kanan was still reeling from her shouting his old name in his face, and he didn't recover until after Raen had stormed out from the room. The seething frustration still prickled awareness, and Kanan realized he was shaking, just a little.

He refocused on the room and noticed instantly that Hera was gone; she must have gone after Raen. Leia was watching him curiously, and Zeb was ignoring the fact Raen had used the wrong name.

"…well, that was…productive," Kanan sighed, flopping back into the chair.

"Yeah, we're never putting her an' Sabine in the same room," Zeb commented. "Still, we've got a plan. Maybe there's still somethin' to this."

"I think there is," Leia agreed. "Those men won't last under the Empire, and the moment they snap they'll be killed without a thought. The sooner we can help, the better."

 _It's not about them_ , Kanan thought, pressing his fingertips together. _Raen needs more than this._ He just had to find out what before she self-imploded.

"Raen! _Raen_!"

Raen tried to outpace Hera, arms folded tight. Of course Caleb wouldn't come to her himself, of _course_ he didn't know what it was like – to watch the only safe place you had known crumble, literally. He had seen the peripheral edge with Order 66 but he hadn't _seen_ what had happened. What she'd lost.

She just managed to get out of the swanky building – still followed by Hera – before the Twi'leki woman caught up, snatching her by the shoulder and forcing Raen to stop and face her.

"…please, tell me," Hera insisted, voice soft. Raen shook with pent-up anger but it didn't seem to faze her. "Raen, _please_."

"…I'm not the helpless kid he thinks I am," Raen murmured, forcing herself to be as calm as possible. She'd never gotten that particular trick down, locking everything away. Didn't seem right. "I was _never_ helpless."

"Kanan doesn't think that," Hera insisted.

"Then why does he think I can't do my part?"

"He doesn't think that," Hera pressed. "Raen, I know it may be hard for you to realize, but Kanan _does_ care about you. He regrets that he never knew what had happened to you. I wouldn't even be surprised if he blames himself for not coming to get you when he had the chance."

"The clones would have killed him anyway."

"Maybe. But at least then he could say he tried, and he's trying now."

Raen lifted her eyes to Hera uncertainly. Even though Raen was sure Caleb was the elder between himself and Hera, Raen saw a lot of what Caleb had been in Hera: the hope, the optimism. She liked to think she used to feel some of that, or at least mimicked it, once.

"…I know it's hard for you to trust me, or anyone other than Kanan, right now," Hera continued after a few beats, "but you _can_ count on us. And I think you had a good idea; it may be the easiest way to do what we need to."

Raen blinked in surprise at Hera's insistence. That was an admission that would've needed to be wrangled out of the new Caleb, she was sure, but here was Hera, a stranger, telling her it was a good idea.

"…Cody or one of the other commandos could cover me," Raen suggested. "That way Caleb doesn't get to worrying like he does."

"Oh, that hasn't changed at all," Hera chuckled, and Raen managed a smile. "I can deal with him and the princess. You get on home and get ready for your adventure. Once you've got your information, you can let us know."

"…thank you," Raen murmured, but before she knew it Hera's arms were embracing her gently. Raen stiffened nervously before recognizing the hug.

 _I'm gonna miss you, Caleb, so so much._

Raen's arms curled around Hera, trying to remember how to hold someone close without tossing them away from her. The Twi'leki woman didn't seem to notice or care, just holding her.

"We'll get this done, Raen," Hera murmured softly. Raen shivered as Hera slowly rubbed her back. "Then Kanan will help you with getting into the Temple. And if he balks I'll drag him in there myself."

"Yeah, I…I think you could," Raen admitted weakly, but her arms tightened slowly with Hera's soft laugh. "Just…it's hard. Seeing him again, seeing him…"

"Different?"

"…in pain," Raen sighed, slowly letting go. Hera stayed with her as Raen tried to walk away, to head back for her hideout. The silent _tell me_ was obvious to anyone, Force-sensitive or not. "It's been, what, fifteen or sixteen years since…everything, right? Anyone who's survived handled it their own ways. Caleb – sorry, Kanan –"

"Kay works," Hera assured her. Raen nodded gratefully; at the very least Caleb kept his first syllable when he'd changed his name.

"Kay ran, because that was what he felt like he could do," Raen continued. "But I hid. Unlike a lot of Jedi, I…I didn't grow up there. Didn't grow up Jedi. I spent the first five years of my life scrounging on Nar Shaddaa. First thing I remember is clutching some piece of scrap I couldn't lift and being so hungry. Then suddenly I'm found by this stranger who says I can be more than another dead kid on the street. That I'm…different. Special."

By this point they'd gotten to the taxi stand, and Raen would have waved one down. Hera stopped her, though, and instead pulled her towards the private speeder pad. They reached one that opened at Hera's touch, and Raen found herself gently pushed inside.

"…so the Jedi found you," Hera said once the speeder was up in the air, weaving slowly through the skylanes. "And you started training then? That was when you met him?"

"Well, not right away," Raen sighed. "I still had to learn the basics and try to fit in. The latter didn't work as well as the Order wanted."

"Fit in? Really?"

"I know, considering me," Raen pointed out. "Jedi training starts off with working in a little team – clan – that acts as something of a foster family. But by the time I was there, getting put in a clan probably wasn't the best idea, but the Masters did it anyway. Clan Shadowcat was where I went."

"Fitting," Hera noted. "A very quiet but very dangerous predator."

"That's what I thought, before I found out my clan severely disliked me. So I decided if they wouldn't like me, I'd make them notice me. Be too good for them to ignore. I got through basic lightsaber training in two years and was well beyond the others by the time I was eight. So one day I camped out in a vent to wait for an advanced class – struck lucky on the older apprentices that came in next. All three to five years older than me, and doing Form Three. So I dropped down and watched for a bit, copying the moves and learning.

"Right up until the Master teaching the class instructed folks into sparring in pairs. There were an odd number so I just…slipped out in case someone needed me. No one moved in right away, and the Master knew I was there. I was terrified I'd get thrown out – first time I wasn't where I was supposed to be, really – but someone came up and offered to partner with me."

"Caleb," Hera surmised with a smile, and Raen nodded.

"I never told him, but…since then, whenever we trained together later, there was…something. Something that…put us together, kept us that way. So when he left for the war, I asked him."

"…to be your Master when he got back," Hera murmured, "but he didn't come back. And you didn't know if he was alive or dead…"

"…so I fell back on my one instinct: hide," Raen concluded. "Sure I've prodded the Empire, especially with getting into the Temple to try and keep training on my own, but I've kept going to ground, staying out of sight."

"And that's how you've been since," Hera added. "Raen, I don't blame you. You and he have lost so much. But Kanan…he did more than just physically run. It's taken him this long to even really accept being a Jedi again. Hearing you were still alive brought a lot of memories back, things he hadn't wanted to remember for a long time. Mostly…regrets. Especially about training you."

Raen turned to Hera in surprise, her throat clenching tightly. He did remember her plea before he left. Was that why he'd come at all?

"I think he _does_ want to train you," Hera continued, "especially since you're one of his few links back to who he used to be. But there's things he has to come to terms with first – and he has to stop running from himself."

"Like I have to stop hiding," Raen admitted; she was surprised that she could get the words out. Hera glanced at her with an approving smile. "Also, I'm…I'm sorry if I seemed like I didn't trust you, or Zeb, when we first met. I don't like strangers on principle – street rat instincts and all."

"It's all right, I guessed as much," Hera told her. "I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me about yourself, Raen, and anything else you might want to tell me."

"Trust is in very short supply these days," Raen pointed out, "so finding anyone who's worthy of it is…sometimes a surprise."

"With us, you'll find more than one surprise," Hera smiled. That time, Raen couldn't help a laugh.

"That, I'm expecting, don't you worry. You have two Jedi, a Lasat, a senator-in-training, and soon six clone soldiers, five of whom are master infiltrators and chaos generators. _Surprise_ is going to be an understatement."

"The trick is seeing how much of one it's going to be."

"You have _no_ idea."


End file.
